Love Stinks! Apparently, Smelling His Armpits Can Increase Sexual Attraction

Before there were arousal techniques like playing a little "sexy time" music or wooing her with enough wine to get her in the mood, humans used their deliciously smelling sweat glands to attract members of the opposite sex.

Apocrine glands, or the glands that create the specialized armpit sweat, produce a unique scent that is difficult to detect consciously, but is nonetheless important in sexual foreplay. Men and women have different secretions; while men have fewer apocrine glands, they still elicit a powerful response in women during close bodily contact.

Women must nuzzle in close to their partner's clean, naked body and take a big ol' whiff to alert their olfactory signals. Even though the guy will probably want to put on some deodorant before doing the dirty, he has to refrain or else he'll mask the smell of his erotic sweat (yes, sweat is now a form of subconscious sexual pleasure).

So how does it all work? Sweat glands produce pheromones, which research has shown influence the hormonal balance of women. In one study, after women had smelled concentrated male sweat extracts for six hours (they must have done a lot of blow in their day...kidding), the women reported that they felt less tense and more relaxed than they had before the test. Well, that's one way to warm her up!

But more interestingly, there was a significant rise in the female hormone that triggers ovulation. Perhaps future research could be focused on isolating a male's key chemicals in sweat glands and using them in new fertility drugs or relaxants for women.

In another study, androstenol, a human pheromone that is chemically similar to testosterone and also secreted by a dude's armpit, was found to produce a stronger reaction in females when they were ovulating. Better check in with your cycle, ladies!

But before you go sticking your nose in every man's armpit, it's important to know that the smelling range of pheromones only amounts to a few centimeters. This means you'll have to get in real close - you and your partner will become fast friends.

Also, genetic differences play a factor as to whether a man smells attractive to a certain lady. A laboratory study found that women respond more strongly to men who have a fragrance that is similar, but not identical, to their own. Moreover, they react least to identical or extremely different odors.

This is an example of our evolution - women were most likely to mate with men who had closely related genetic make-ups to them, but not too close (a.k.a., we're biologically wired to stay away from incest, way to go nature!).

Clearly women are unaware that they can smell the genes of a man and that these differences are influencing their choice in male partners. But it also takes a lot more to attract a woman than shoving your armpit in her face.

Perhaps, though, if you're trying to make your one-night-stand a consistent sidekick, you should offer her to smell your sweat... Via: The Unbounded Spirit, Photo courtesy Flirting With Disaster