FORGET flowers, chocolate and musky colognes. For revving up a woman鈥檚 sex drive, breast milk is best.
The smells associated with lactation have already been shown to influence menstrual cycles in other women (New 杏吧原创, 6 May 2000, p 12). Natasha Spencer of the University of Chicago wondered if they affected sexual behaviour as well. Her team got 26 nursing women to wear absorbent pads in their bras for 5 to 10 days. Then they asked 90 childless women to sniff these pads, or controls, several times a day for two months. Women sniffing real breast pads reported a 24 per cent increase in sexual desire and a 17 per cent increase in sexual fantasies, whereas those sniffing controls reported no libido boost (Hormones and Behavior, vol 46, p 362).
Team member Martha McLintock says that this chemical cue may have encouraged woman to conceive when times were favourable. 鈥淲hat better signal than another woman who has survived her pregnancy and is nursing successfully?鈥�
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But anyone hoping to buy 鈥渆au de breast milk鈥� will be disappointed. The chemicals responsible have not been identified, and there are no plans to launch any product.
