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IT IS NOT only animals that rely on physical cues to gauge the fertility of potential rivals for a mate, an unusual study asserted this week.
Without knowing it, human women seem to be able to recognise others in the most fertile phase of their menstrual cycle, around ovulation, simply by looking at their faces, it said.
And intriguingly, this ability was pronounced in women with high levels of oestradiol, a female sex hormone linked to high general fertility.
The findings implied that more fertile women, who are likely to have more children in their lifetime, “are better at guarding their mate from potential adultery,” study co-author Janek Lobmaier of the University of Bern told AFP.
The paper was published in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters.
Previous research had shown that men prefer portraits of women taken around the ovulation period over those of the same women in a non-fertile phase.
Few studies, if any, have tested whether women too can discern such cyclical facial differences.
Lobmaier and a team showed pairs of photographs of women – one taken in the most fertile and one in the least fertile phase of their menstrual cycle – to over 200 other women, some in an online survey and others in the lab.
Unlike men, women did not find the faces in the portraits more or less attractive depending on when they were photographed, the team found.
Subtle, but detectable
Overall, they also did not suspect either version to be more likely to “entice your date away from you”, as the question was phrased.
But looking at a subgroup of respondents for whom the team had data on naturally-occurring hormone levels, the team found an interesting trend.
Those who were not ovulating but had high oestradiol levels were more likely to pick the photo of an ovulatory woman as a potential date thief.
“One explanation for our findings might be that ovulatory women (who are currently fertile) pose a greater threat to women with high oestradiol levels (who are currently not fertile but have a high potential fertility),” said Lobmaier.
The study did not test the potential influence of naturally fluctuating oestradiol levels.
Many animals send conspicuous signals to indicate fertility – using plumage, colouring, scent or a special call.
“In humans, these changes are not obvious, so many researchers have suggested that ovulation is concealed in humans,” said Lobmaier.
But there is accumulating evidence that there are subtle changes in human females that are not obvious, but they can still be detected.
Women are fertile for a relatively short period of their menstrual cycle – a few days before and the day of ovulation.
As with animals, it is theorised that if men can detect this window, it boosts their ability to spread their genes.
“For women, there is perhaps no direct advantage to detect fertility in other women’s faces, but their might be indirect benefits, for example by making sure her own partner does not commit adultery,” said Lobmaier.
The women in the study were not told its purpose.
Lobmaier said the effects of this evolutionary ability were probably a “really, really, really small” part of human behaviour.
“They are interesting from an evolutionary point of view, but how big the influence is on our daily lives we can’t really say.”
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I can tell my ones menstrual cycle by her face too.
Oh boy what a comment to start my Sunday !
It’s a pity that women are not evolved enough to guard their mate from potential adultery during pregnancy too it would prevent an awful lot of tears being shed
Surprisingly enough, the primary driver behind evolution is the propagation of the species, rather than combatting shed tears.
Liam, the rules for the propagation of the race are very complex similar to the processes of generation and development. They are based on the characteristics of reproduction in the human species and on the needs of the child during their time of growth. They can be divided into three stages.
1 conception
2 the birth of the child and its formation
3 the environment indispensable to the material and spiritual life of the family.
Irish men have stage one mastered, ply the woman with alcohol and treats, but groups 2 & 3 are not so easy hence the number of single parent families and broken homes in Ireland
Josephine. The vast, vast majority of children in Ireland are brought up with both parents. Just because we support single parent families, doesn’t make it the norm, and extrapolate that every man is a dick. And I’m not sure where you get your list from, but the evolutionary aim of every human is just to reproduce and keep the offspring alive until it reproduces. nurture and all that nonsense is just a human trait to fool us that it is something more. Hence men and women being turned on by photos of ovulating women.
Alien8,
nonsensical comment 1: the evolutionary aim of every human is just to reproduce and keep the offspring alive until it reproduces- link to this being the aim of each and every human? even though many dont EVEN wish to reproduce
nonsensical comment 2: Hence men and women being turned on by photos of ovulating women-I never heard such crap, link to the myth of women being turned on by photos of ovulating women
nonsensical comment 3: we support single parent families-who is we? are you onefamily.ie?
What the hell does what someone “want” have to do with anything? We are talking about nature. In nature, you will have heard about worker ants and bees – that would be the equivalent of those that don’t “want” to reproduce, but aid the species as a whole (source: every evolutionarily biology book ever wrote). 2. This report showed that there was a chemical reaction by women when presented with a picture of ovulating women, look at the photo of the two women in the headline – if you disregard your innate guilt complex – you will have an increased hormone level. 3 : the country of Ireland does not discriminate against single parent families – we (Ireland) support single parent families in all areas of society. never heard of onefamily, but I never trust a website that ends in .ie.
OMG
1. You are the only one on this page to have used the word want?!
2. This report? Which report are you referring to??
3. Innate guilt, WTF, you are the only one who is guilty of something on this page, i.e. discriminating against irish websites, the IEDR will be in touch no doubt
You don’t understand evolution Josephine. Alien is right, the notion that evolutionary biology is concerned with nurturing environments is laughably ignorant of both evolution and biology.
I think the both of you are aliens from another plant tbh as you are believable as a human beings if you think nurture is not an evolved human trait, Darwin award coming for you both soon no doubt
Not believable*
Yes, yes. The IEDR will be in touch to confiscate your IP and will not return it until you’ve written out “I Will Not Talk Crap On The Internet” one hundred times neatly.
stop spreading misinformation Lapin, IP addresses are dynamically assigned on the internet using the DHCP protocol and cant be confiscated but the IEDR do use the courts to resolve disputes between two parties over domain discrimination
Unlike other animals, human females don’t seem to need to give off signals of fertility.
The propagation of the species is taken care of by the constant horn of the human male who is in a state of permanent heat, ready and willing to ride anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Let’s do it David – Right here, right now!
Rrrrrrrrrr
Get a room!!
Human women! Are there any other kind?
Inhuman wemon ?
Another study showed that lap dancers earn more tips when they are ovulating
I can see who looks fertile too after about 8 pints
All women start to look more attractive towards closing time. This happens independently of the amount of alcohol you may have consumed. As it gets closer to going home time the opportunity to find a mate starts to decline and men get less fussy about looks.
Never trust a creature that can bleed for days and still survive
@ James Doyle. ..
Looks like I picked a great time to read your comment whilst having a bowl of vegetable soup.
catholic doctrine?
Beware, it is the time of the year lol.
They can’t do much about it though!!!
You end these comments period
Given the evidence would it be safe to assume that its pointless trying to hide an erection.
The interesting thing is that neuro-imaging shows women’s fertie period to be when they’re most prone to infidellity.
Cows do it by humping each other lol.
have your say