A fascinating study from Swiss researchers demonstrated that women don’t need to worry about using expensive perfumes to make themselves irresistible to men. The research showed that a fertile woman has a distinctive scent that no man can resist.
According to the study, women who are fit for reproduction emit a distinctive scent that men find attractive. The particular scent has to do with low levels of progesterone and high levels of oestrogen, which are also prime indicators that a woman is in a state of optimum fertility. The results of the study showed that men feel higher levels of attraction towards women who exhibit signs of being ready for successful reproduction.
The study involved 57 male participants and 27 female participants. The females were given strict guidelines to follow to isolate their scent, which included abstaining from eating spicy foods or drinking alcohol, and other particular restrictions regarding chemicals or fragranced products like soaps and detergents.
In addition, the female participants were not permitted to use any scented products during the period of the study, were not allowed to take any hormonal contraceptives, and even had to sleep alone throughout the entire study.
During the periods of the women’s cycle when they were most fertile, they were instructed to collect a sample of their personal scent by using soft cotton pads in their armpits. The female participants also had samples of their saliva collected during the research period so that their hormonal levels could be tracked.
The male participants had the dubious task of sniffing the cotton pads in a laboratory setting and were asked to rate the attractiveness of each scent from 0 to 100.
When determining the results of the study, the investigators took into consideration that there are myriad other elements that could influence a female’s scent, including certain genes that interact with the immune system, along with cortisol, the human stress hormone.
The findings of this landmark survey suggest that the attractiveness of a woman’s scent is positively affected by that woman’s current levels of reproductive hormones. These results appear to be in line with previous research which suggested that a woman’s levels of visual attractiveness to men was positively affected by that woman’s current oestrogen levels.
In the years since this study was first published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, additional research has continued to support these findings, highlighting their ongoing relevance to our understanding of human biology and attraction.
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This post was originally published in 2018. It was last updated in January 2025.
