Applying a male’s underarm sweat to a female’s lips can help women relax, boost their mood and help regulate their menstrual cycle.

The actual scent of a good man may be tunes to your women's nose. Scientists say the particular odorless pheromones obtained in in male perspiration can have a new stunning influence on both a women's mind and body. The latest study identified exposure to male pheromones can boost a women's mood and stimulate the release of a hormone that regulates the menstrual cycle. 

In the study, research workers used extracts connected with underarm secretions coming from male volunteers on the upper lips of 18 ladies between age groups of 20 and also 45. None from the ladies knew that male sweat were being given to their own lips, and some imagined we were holding involved in a survey connected with booze or perhaps perfume and even lemon floor wax. The women then rated their moods over six hours of exposure; they consistently reported feeling less tension and more relaxed.

"Much to our surprise, the women reported feeling less tense and more relaxed during exposure to the male extract," says researcher Charles J. Wysocki of the University of Pennsylvania, in a news release. "This suggests that there may be much more going on in social settings like singles bars than meets the eye."

Each of the women received three applications of the underarm extract during the six-hour evaluation period, followed by three doses of exposure to ethanol (alcohol) over another six-hour period.

Researchers also found that exposure to the male pheromones also prompted a shift in blood levels of a reproductive hormone called luteinizing hormone. Levels of this hormone typically surge before ovulation, but women also experience small surges during other times in the menstrual cycle.

The study found that the male pheromone extract hastened the onset of these smaller surges and shortened the pauses between surges by 20%.

Researchers are now looking at individual compound that are found in male perspiration in hopes of identifying the elements responsible for these psychological and hormonal changes.

"This may open the door to pharmacological approaches to manage onset of ovulation or the effects of premenstrual syndrome or even natural products to aid relaxation," says Wysocki. "By determining how pheromones impact mood and endocrine response, we might be able to build a better male odor: molecules that more effectively manipulate the effects we observed." 

SOURCE: Biology of Reproduction, June 2003. News release, University of Pennsylvania.