TOI, Patna 15-08-08
‘Women on the pill can’t sniff out Mr. Right’
London. Give a second thought before you pop the next contraceptive pill, for a study has revealed that it may disrupt a woman’s natural ability to choose Mr. Right.
A team at Liverpool University in Britain has carried out the study and found that the contraceptive pill changes a woman’s choice in men by altering the way she actually reacts to a male body odour.
According to experts, a man’s aroma gives a clue to his type of genes and ability to fight disease, and women subconsciously react to the smell to pin point a partner with dissimlar genes to themselves. But taking the pill could disrupt this ability to sniff out the ideal partner, the Daily Telegraph reported.
And some possible consequences -- women could be more attracted to partners with whom it would be harder to conceive if they want children, an increased risk of miscarriage and long intervals between pregnancies.
Passing on a lack of diverse genes to a child could also weaken the woman’s immune system. Known as Major Histocomaptibility Complex or MHC, different MHC molecules fight different diseases, so it is important to have a mix of MHC type, according to the researchers.
The British team analysed how the birth prevention pill affects odour preferences on 100 women. They did not find that women who were not on the pill were more attracted to men with a different MHC showing that the extent to which preferences for genetically dissimilar odours varies from study to study.
