Does scent attractiveness reveal women’s ovulatory timing? Evidence from signal detection analyses and endocrine predictors of odor attractiveness

Odor cues associated with shifts in ovarian hormones indicate ovulatory timing in females of many nonhuman species. Although prior evidence supports women’s body odors smelling more attractive on days when conception is possible, that research has left ambiguous how diagnostic of ovulatory timing odor cues are, as well as whether shifts in odor attractiveness are correlated with shifts in ovarian hormones. Here, 46 women each provided 6 overnight scent and corresponding day saliva samples spaced 5 days apart, and completed luteinizing hormone tests to determine ovulatory timing. Scent samples collected near ovulation were rated more attractive, on average, relative to samples from the same women collected on other days. Importantly, however, signal detection analyses showed that rater discrimination of fertile window timing from odor attractiveness ratings was very poor. Within-women shifts in salivary estradiol and progesterone were not significantly associated with within-women shifts...

在诸多非人类物种中，与卵巢激素（ovarian hormones）水平波动相关的气味线索（odor cues）可指示雌性个体的排卵时机（ovulatory timing）。尽管已有研究证实，女性在可受孕窗口期的体味会被评价为更具吸引力，但此类研究仍存在两处模糊之处：一是气味线索对排卵时机的诊断效能究竟如何，二是气味吸引力的变化是否与卵巢激素水平波动存在关联。本研究共纳入46名女性受试者，每名受试者每隔5天采集1份夜间气味样本与对应日间唾液样本，累计采集6组，并通过黄体生成素（luteinizing hormone）检测确定其排卵时机。相较于同一受试者在其他时段采集的气味样本，排卵临近时采集的样本平均吸引力评分更高。但关键在于，信号检测分析（signal detection analyses）结果显示，评分者通过气味吸引力评分辨别受孕期窗口（fertile window）的能力极差。受试者个体内唾液雌二醇（salivary estradiol）与孕酮（progesterone）的水平变化，并未与个体内的气味吸引力变化呈现显著关联……