BBC NEWS | Health | Hunger dictates who men fancy

Blackwell Synergy: Psychophysiology, Vol 41, Issue 3, pp. 401-406: Menstrual cycle phase effects on prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle (Abstract): "Menstrual cycle phase effects on prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle
Tanja Jovanovica,b, Sandor Szilagyic, Subhajit Chakravortyc, Ana M. Fiallosa,b, Barbara J. Lewisona,b, Arti Parwanid, Marion P. Schwartzc, Stephen Gonzenbachc, John P. Rotrosenc,d, andErica J. Duncana,b
Abstract

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) represents an attenuation of the startle reflex following the presentation of a weak prepulse at brief intervals prior to the startle eliciting pulse. It has been shown that increases in striatal dopamine levels decrease PPI; because dopamine release is sensitive to estrogen, it is likely that PPI varies across the menstrual cycle. Cross-sectional studies looking at estrogen effects suggest that this may be true. In this study, we compare effects of menstrual phase on PPI in a between-group design (men, follicular phase women, and luteal phase women) as well as a within-subjects design (women across the two phases). The study found a between-group as well as a within-subjects effect of phase on PPI. PPI in follicular phase women did not differ significantly from PPI in men. However, PPI was reduced in luteal women compared to follicular women. These data provide evidence that ovarian hormones affect sensorimotor gating."

Menstrual cycle alters face preference

Women prefer slightly feminized male facial shapes. Such faces (Fig. 1a) are given positive personality attributions that might correlate with actual behaviour. In contrast, masculine features seem to signal immunological competence. Heritable benefits can be realized only if conception follows copulation, so women might be more attentive to phenotypic markers indicating immunological competence during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle when conception is most likely,. Consistent with this hypothesis is the observation that women's preference for the odour of men with low fluctuating asymmetry (a correlate of testosterone-facilitated trait size and developmental stability) increases with the probability of conception across the menstrual cycle. Symmetrical men report more extra-pair copulation partners, and extra-pair copulation rates peak in midcycle. Here we show that female preference for secondary sexual traits in male face shapes varies with the probability of conception across the menstrual cycle.

The Royal Society - Article: "Menstrual cycle variation in women's preferences for the scent of symmetrical men

S. W. Gangestad, R. Thornhill

Abstract:

Evidence suggests that female sexual preferences change across the menstrual cycle. Women's extra-pair copulations tend to occur in their most fertile period, whereas their intra-pair copulations tend to be more evenly spread out across the cycle. This pattern is consistent with women preferentially seeking men who evidence phenotypic markers of genetic benefits just before and during ovulation. This study examined whether women's olfactory preferences for men's scent would tend to favour the scent of more symmetrical men, most notably during the women's fertile period. College women sniffed and rated the attractiveness of the scent of 41 T-shirts worn over a period of two nights by different men. Results indicated that normally cycling (non-pill using) women near the peak fertility of their cycle tended to prefer the scent of shirts worn by symmetrical men. Normally ovulating women at low fertility within their cycle, and women using a contraceptive pill, showed no significant preference for either symmetrical or asymmetrical men's scent. A separate analysis revealed that, within the set of normally cycling women, individual women's preference for symmetry correlated with their probability of conception, given the actuarial value associated with the day of the cycle they reported at the time they smelled the shirts. Potential sexual selection processes and proximate mechanisms accounting for these findings are discussed."

*It's Gangestad and Thornhill again... this time, all they did was ask when the last period was, and the duration of the period. It will be more work, but we can do that along with the saliva samples...

Changes in women's sexual interests and their partners' mate-retention tactics across the menstrual cycle: evidence for shifting conflicts of interest

The Royal Society - Article: "Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
ISSN: 0962-8452 (Paper) 1471-2954 (Online)
Issue: Volume 269, Number 1494 / May 7, 2002
Pages: 975 - 982
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2001.1952
URL: Linking Options
Changes in women's sexual interests and their partners' mate-retention tactics across the menstrual cycle: evidence for shifting conflicts of interest

Steven W. Gangestad A1, Randy Thornhill A2, Christine E. Garver A1

A1 Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
A2 Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA

Abstract:

Because ancestral women could have obtained genetic benefits through extra-pair sex only near ovulation, but paid costs of extra-pair sex throughout the cycle, one might expect selection to have shaped female interest in partners, other than primary partners, to be greater near ovulation than during the luteal phase. Because men would have paid heavier costs if their partners had extra-pair sex near ovulation, one might also expect selection to have shaped males' efforts to track their primary partners' whereabouts to be increased near ovulation, relative to the luteal phase. Women filled out questionnaires about their sexual interests and their partners' mate-retention tactics twice: once within 5 days before a lutenizing hormone surge and once during the luteal phase. Results showed that: (i) women reported greater sexual interest in, and fantasy about, non-primary partners near ovulation than during the luteal phase; (ii) women did not report significantly greater sexual interest in, and fantasy about, primary partners near ovulation; (iii) women reported that their primary partners were both more attentive and more proprietary near ovulation."

Effects of putative male pheromones on female ratings of male attractiveness: influence of oral …

Effects of putative male pheromones on female ratings of male attractiveness: influence of oral … -
F Thorne, N Neave, A Scholey, M Moss, B Fink - Neuroendocrinol. Lett, 2002 - nel.edu
... the Northumbria University Division of Psychology Ethics Committee ... As we did not
use ovulation test kits for ... study may be caused by testing participants during ...

Patterns of Affective Fluctuation in the Menstrual Cycle -- IVEY and BARDWICK 30 (3): 336 -- Psychosomatic Medicine: "Patterns of Affective Fluctuation in the Menstrual Cycle
MELVILLE E. IVEY 1 and JUDITH M. BARDWICK PH.D.1

1 Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Twenty-six female college students aged 19-22 were tested for differences in anxiety level during the menstrual cycle. Ss were asked to talk for 5 min. on 'any memorable life experience.' These verbal samples were recorded at ovulation and 2-3 days preceding the onset of menses during 2 complete menstrual cycles for each S. The samples were scored according to Gottschalk's (1961) Verbal Anxiety Scale (VAS) for Death, Mutilation, Separation, Guilt, Shame, and Diffuse Anxiety. The verbal samples were also examined for thematic variations.

The sensitivity of the VAS was confirmed, as it revealed consistent and significant variations in anxiety level between ovulation and premenstrual samples for each S. The premenstrual anxiety level was found to be significantly higher (p < 0.0005) than that at ovulation over all Ss. Additional findings showed consistent themes of hostility and depression as well as themes of noncoping during the premenstrual phase of the menstrual cycle. In spite of individual differences between Ss, these findings indicate significant and predictable affective fluctuations during the menstrual cycle which correlate with endocrine changes. Qualitative data on 'premenstrual syndrome' and psychosomatic aspects of premenstrual symptoms were also presented.
Submitted on November 22, 1967"

*They used basal body temps... but it was also the late 60's...

"A new diagnostic aid for natural family planning"

SpringerLink - Article: "A new diagnostic aid for natural family planning"

M. Barbato1, A. Pandolfi1 and M. Guida2
(1) Centro Ambrosiano Metodi Naturali, Via Bergamini, 8, I-20122 Milano, Italy
(2) II School of Medicine, University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Received: 9 December 1992 Revised: 22 July 1993 Accepted: 22 July 1993
Abstract
Introduction We have studied the use-effectiveness of salivary ferning as a diagnostic testing aid to natural family planning. We used PG/53, a pocket microscope.
Materials and methods Use of natural family planning methods was studied in 32 women who used the new technology PG/53 to detect the fertile period. By this means the women observed their menstrual cycles and other markers of fertility, such as basal body temperature and appearance of cervical mucus.
Results Of the 32 women participating in this research, 28 women had a good salivary test with positive ferning by the microscope in the same period as other markers of fertility. In 4 cycles the ferning was uninterpretable as there was no correspondence with the cycle phase. Ferning began 1–2 days before cervical mucus appearance, and lasted a mean of 6.2 days. Ferning occurred, on average, 7.2 days before the first day of temperature shift.
Conclusions There is a direct correlation between salivary ferning and fertile period. Salivary ferning may be used as a new parameter to aid women to detect the fertile period in combination with other symptothermal methods of ovulation detection. We now need further research in order to improve the use-effectiveness of salivary ferning."

Martie G. Haselton

Martie Hazelton's research.

Ovulatory shifts in female sexual desire Journal of Sex Research - Find Articles: "Ovulatory shifts in female sexual desire
Journal of Sex Research, Feb, 2004 by Elizabeth G. Pillsworth, Martie G. Haselton, David M. Buss
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Mixed Signals -...

Given the profound reproductive importance of mate choice, female sexual psychology has likely been shaped by reproductive constraints and opportunities. The high energetic costs of pregnancy and an extended period of juvenile dependency in humans have limited the total lifetime reproductive output to only a few offspring (Daly & Wilson, 1983; Low, 2000). In modern hunter-gatherer communities, for example, lifetime reproductive output ranges from a low of about 4.5 children among the !Kung of Southern Africa to just over 8 children among the Ache of Paraguay (Hawkes, O'Connell, & Blurton-Jones, 1997; Hill & Hurtado, 1996; Howell, 1979). Moreover, opportunities for conception are restricted to a small window within a woman's monthly cycle (Wilcox, Weinberg, & Baird, 1995), and over the long course of human evolutionary history, such ovulatory events necessarily would have been rare in a woman's life. Most women of reproductive age spent many years pregnant or lactating, states that suppress ovulation (Symons, 1995). High infant mortality required more frequent pregnancies to reproduce successfully. Menarche occurred later in life, shortening ancestral women's reproductive years compared with those of modern women. Earlier age of death abbreviated the reproductive span. In women living today, ovulation is sometimes a monthly event that recurs for roughly 2 decades, resulting in perhaps 200 to 300 hundred ovulatory episodes. In ancestral women, older age of menarche, frequent episodes of pregnancy, many years of lactation, and shorter lifespans would have drastically reduced the number of these episodes to perhaps as few as a dozen, rendering each "

Blackwell Publishing Press Room: "42"

Armpit odour can exude women's fertility
April 2006

Research published in the recent issue of Ethology has discovered that men are able to potentially use smell as a mechanism to establish when their current or prospective sexual partners are at their most fertile.

Females of a number of primate species display their fertile period by behavioural and/or morphological changes. The prevalent opinion was that there are no noticeable changes in humans across the cycle. Havlíček et al, however, have found that women’s axillary odour is assessed most attractive in the follicular phase i.e. in the time when conception is most likely.

One of the possible mechanisms for assessing menstrual cycle phase is by means of smell. Thus the researchers investigated possible changes in odour across the menstrual cycle in a sample of 12 women with regular menstrual cycle, not using hormonal contraception. To collect their body odour, they wore armpit pads for 24 hours under controlled conditions (food restrictions, no deodorants etc). Body odour was collected repeatedly during the menstrual, follicular and luteal cycle phase. Fresh samples were assessed namely for attractiveness and intensity by 42 men.

Axillary odour from women in the follicular phase was rated as the most attractive and least intense. On the other hand, highest intensity and lowest attractiveness was found during the time of menstrual bleeding.

The results suggest that body odour can be used by men as a cue to the fertile period in current or prospective sexual partners. Therefore, the fertile period in humans should be considered non-advertised, rather than concealed.

To view this article online please contact Davina Quarterman.

For further information about this press release please contact: Jan Havlíček, Charles university in Prague, email address Jan.Havlicek@fhs.cuni.cz

Impact of Gender, Menstrual Cycle Phase, and Oral Contraceptives on the Activity of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis -- Kirschbaum et al. 61 (2): 154 -- Psychosomatic Medicine: "Impact of Gender, Menstrual Cycle Phase, and Oral Contraceptives on the Activity of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis
Clemens Kirschbaum, PhD, Brigitte M. Kudielka, MS, Jens Gaab, MS, Nicole C. Schommer, MS and Dirk H. Hellhammer, PhD

From the Center for Psychobiological and Psychosomatic Research, University of Trier, Germany.

Address reprint requests to: Clemens Kirschbaum, PhD, Center for Psychobiological and Psychosomatic Research, University of Trier, Dietrichstr. 10–11, 54290 Trier, Germany. E-mail: Kirschba@uni-trier.de

OBJECTIVE: Results from animal and human studies suggest that disregulations of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are involved in several behavioral, circulatory, endocrine, and immune disorders with clear-cut gender differences in disease prevalence. The aim of the present study was to investigate sex-specific HPA response patterns with a focus on the contribution of gonadal steroids as possible mediators.

METHODS: A total of 81 healthy adults were investigated in the present study. Twenty men, 19 women in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, 21 women in the luteal phase, and 21 women using oral contraceptives (OC) were exposed to a brief psychosocial stress test (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST) and injected with 0.25 mg ACTH1–24 on consecutive days. Basal HPA activity was investigated by repeatedly measuring cortisol levels immediately after awakening, as well as in 30-minute intervals from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Additionally, questionnaires were used to assess psychological state and trait parameters.

RESULTS: Results show that the TSST induced significant increases in ACTH, salivary-free cortisol, total plasma cortisol, and heart rates, as well as increased wakefulness and reduced calmness in the total gr"