See also the history-making article
by Martha McClintock,
Menstrual Synchrony and
Suppression (1971, in Nature magazine), and an
abstract (below) of McClintoch's 1998 article (with
K. Stern), Pheromones Influence Menstrual Cycles,
also in Nature. Read a German announcement
of this finding in bild der wissenschaft,
republished here with permission, with one reader's
personal experience (in German).
See also
Australian douche ad (ca.
1900) - Fresca douche powder
(U.S.A.) (date ?) - Kotique
douche liquid ad, 1974 (U.S.A.) - Liasan (1) genital wash ad,
1980s (Germany) - Liasan (2)
genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1928
(U.S.A.) - Lysol douche
liquid ad, 1948 (U.S.A.) - Marvel
douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Midol menstrual pain pill ad,
1938 (U.S.A.) - Midol booklet
(selections), 1959 (U.S.A.) - Mum
deodorant cream ad, 1926 (U.S.A.) - Myzone menstrual pain pills
ad, 1952 (Australia) - Pristeen
genital spray ad, 1969 (U.S.A.) - Spalt pain tablets, 1936
(Germany) - Sterizol
douche liquid ad, 1926 (U.S.A.) - Vionell
genital spray ad, 1970, with Cheryl Tiegs (Germany) -
Zonite douche liquid ad, 1928
(U.S.A.)
The Perils of Vaginal Douching
(essay by Luci Capo Rome)
A patent medicine, Orange Blossom Suppositories: "A deodorant for unpleasant vaginal
odors"
|
Odor, menstrual cycle, pheromones and
otherwise with history
(or in Spanish translation, Olor,
traducido por María García)
Among the many things women are asked
to worry about, odor emanating
from her genitals is a big one. Advertising
in American magazines since at least the 1920s has
whispered - in huge, frightening ads - that an unwashed vulva and an undouched
vagina can end a marriage, even for the woman whose
meals are tasty and on time, whose house is orderly
and dust free, and whose kids are better than the
neighbor's.
And then you
menstruate.
Surely, this is a great, but awful
truth for most women, these words of Simone de
Beauvoir, in The Second Sex:
Menstrual blood .
. . represents the essence of femininity.
To have something most women at least
dislike, and sometimes hate - read many comments about this -
represent their sex, certainly puts them in their
place almost everywhere in the world. Men strutted
about in decorated codpieces 400-500 years ago in
Europe, parading their penises, but when have women
flown their menstruous rags? (Actually, some European
women seem to have let their menstrual blood flow
without any absorbing material, at least in England
and Germany, and I suspect elsewhere. Read about this.)
Rachel Sobel, an undergraduate at
Harvard, now [July 1998] doing research at MUM about
the tampon industry for her senior thesis, mentioned
that menstrual odor was once considered seductive in
the odor-rich 18th century.
Ads embarrass Americans into being
odor free by buying underarm odor killers, menstrual
pads with baking soda, tampons with
deodorants, etc.
But after reading Alain Corbin's The
Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Social
Imagination (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1986) she writes that
in 18th
century France, menses was considered to be
'impregnated with subtle vapors transmitted by
the essence of life.' These were particularly
seducing, as a woman was 'dispersing seductive
effluvia' and 'making an appeal for
fertilization.' Thus, societies have celebrated
the seductive aroma of menstruation, rather than
stifled [it].
And Dr. Richard Lambert, in Sex Facts for Women, says menstrual blood smells like the
marigold, a flower - a
further connection between menstruation and flowers
(another being advertising's likening the Tassette
menstrual cup to a tulip).
So what causes the characteristic smell
of menstruation? Is it like a marigold?
You're not going to like this.
Bacteria from the anus - oh, I'll
just say it: they're from feces, and are the famous
Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria - eat
the blood, cells and tissue running from the uterus
and vagina and produce the characteristic smell of
menstruation.
Sorry.
You say you don't have fecal bacteria
in your vagina? Oh, ho, ho, yes you DO!
Your basic anus is about an inch
(2.54 centimeters) from the entrance to the vagina
and it's a snap for bacteria to creep that teensy
distance - or ride on a tampon, cup, pad or inside
panties (imagine how a thong might do this) or get
wiped there with a swipe of toilet paper (a good
reason to wipe the anus toward the back, not toward
the front of the body, to minimize the number that
do make the trip).
Now, for most of the month the acid
in the vagina - yes, helpful bacteria there make
lactic acid - ties the hands and feet of those
little devils by hardly allowing them to reproduce
and grow. They and many other disease-causing
bacteria cannot thrive in the acid.
But for a few days each month the
vagina, and outside, on the vulva, are the perfect
places to raise a family! You guessed it: during menstruation! Blood,
cells and secretions from the uterus and vagina make
the vagina more alkaline and the bacteria feel right
at home. Oh, girl! And they gorge gourmet whenever
they want!
So what about female folks who don't
menstruate, like prepubescent girls and
postmenopausal women? Fecal bacteria can live in
their vaginas without producing that characteristic
smell because the bacterial and hormonal setup is
different from that of menstruating women.
O.K., if there are so many bacteria
in the vagina during menstruation is it SAFE TO HAVE SEX?
If by sex you mean a penis doing his
job, and if both people have
no infectious diseases, for example HIV and
hepatitis, then it's generally safe.
But there is one huge exception:
women who get urinary tract
infections. The entrance to the bladder is
right above the opening of the vagina and the penis
can rub the swarming bacteria right into the tube
that leads to the bladder, which is much shorter
than a male's, one reason women get UTIs much more
often than men.
Douches and deodorants can also
change the environment of the vagina and allow
dangerous bacteria to grow there. (Read about not
douching.)
MUM board
member Dr. Philip Tierno Jr.'s book "The
Secret Life of Germs" supplied most of the
information for my essay, although he wrote with
more restraint.
In March 2010 a British biologist wrote
me about his ability to detect
some women who are menstruating, not all, by
"like a sneeze on the way in my
nose/nasal area." He was not attracted to those
women, quite the contrary. But read his
account:
"I was just listening to your interview
on the web. Here is something you might consider but
may, I think, be too controversial. I assure you I
am a professional biologist and I have considered
this subject over many years. I have also mentioned
it to many girlfriends and proved it to their
satisfaction on several occasions. I can detect when some ladies are
having a period. I will call it a 'smell'
but it isn't - it is not
unpleasant but it is distinct - it is a 'feeling'
- a tickle - like a sneeze on the way in my
nose/nasal area. I have been able to do it
all my life (although when I was young I didn't know
what it was). I assumed that everybody could do it.
The most common time it happens is at the check-out at the supermarket.
I can only do it with about 10% or less of females.
To give an example - I walked into an office where
my girlfriend was working and my nose tickled. Later
I said to her "Of course you were all having your
period." She was appalled -
but I explained my ability and she admitted that all
the girls (4) in the office had synchronised their cycles.
Although I could not detect hers I could detect one
or more of the other ladies. Here
is the interesting thing. I have never dated a
lady who's period I could detect in this way. I
am, somehow, 'put-off' by ladies whose cycle I
could detect. Furthermore, I could do it
with my mother - "You smell funny!" (no sisters).
The possible biological explanation of this is
actually quite well established. Many mammals select
mates that are 'different' - it is a form of
out-breeding (to avoid in-breeding depression). The argument is that breeding with
mates that have a very similar immune-systems will
detrimental to the off-spring. It is known
in several mammals that this outbreeding to avoid
similarity in HLA antigens is done by smell. Be
assured that I am not talking about incest here - in
the population of human females some, by chance,
will have similar HLA antigens to me and it would be
advantageous if I avoided mating with them. I offer
you this as an observation. I wonder if any other
males can do it?"
The writer referred me to a 2007
article and study about lap
dancers that concluded
While ovulating - and therefore the
most fertile - strippers made an average of $30
per hour more than menstruating women and $15 per
hour more than women elsewhere in their cycles.
Women on the pill - who typically don't ovulate -
made significantly less than naturally cycling
women overall and had no "estrus earning peak."
(Rebecca Skloot, Lap-Dance
Science, 9 December 2007, New York Times)
That seems to agree with the finding
(somewhere) that ovulating women feel sexier and are
attracted to more masculine-looking men.
And again, somewhat on the subject, Sally Price, the Dittman
Professor of American Studies at the College of
William and Mary, sent this
museum her essay "The Curse's Blessing," (from
Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, volume XIV, No.
2) which calls into question
the popular idea that menstrual huts provided relief
from male restrictions and maybe even a
chance to have a little "fun" on the side, if you get
what I mean.
Professor Price, who spent many
menstrual periods in menstrual huts in Suriname, felt
the isolation and discomfort women have experienced
for hundreds - thousands? - of years in similar
situations. (See a Hawaiian
menstrual hut.)
By the way, she writes in Co-wives and Calabashes
(second edition 1993, University of Michigan, available at $16.95) that her using menstrual huts, as
required of the indigenous people she lived with,
endeared her more to the people she was observing
and living with than even learning their language.
Taboos are powerful.
Scientific
treatments of odor and menstruation
(See also Martha McClintock's history-making article in
Nature magazine in 1971, Menstrual synchrony and
suppression. Professor
McClintock, now at the University of Chicago, spoke at
the conference of The Society for Menstrual Cycle
Research in June 1997; see my report
and photo of her.)
Menstrual
Cycles and Odors, below, by Anne Kitchell, is
from the Internet, and covers many topics.
My excuse for reproducing this item
below, rather than forcing you to visit the site
itself, is that I was afraid the site may be dropped
eventually, and it's too valuable to lose. You can
still visit by clicking on the title.
What role do
odors play in the human menstrual cycle?
Do human
menstrual odors act as attractant?
Blood-Scented
Perfume
[I dropped the first two paragraphs,
except for the two lines just below; read them in
the original by clicking Menstrual
Cycles
and Odors]
. . . . Sound scientific documentation
supporting such anecdotal, gender-biased malarkey
[that animals are attracted to menstrual odor, etc.]
is hard to find; actually one is more likely to run
across studies concluding quite the opposite.
UnBEARable . . .
Such a study was published in the
Journal of Wildlife Management in 1991 in answer to
concerns regarding black bears'
attraction to menstrual odors [Finley added
the red] and subsequent attacks on female hikers. The
death of two menstruating women attacked by grizzlies
in Glacier National Park in 1967 apparently prompted
the government to print brochures warning women to
avoid bear country during periods of active
menstruation. However, the examination of factors
surrounding hundreds of grizzly and black bear attacks
produced neither evidence that supported a causal
relation between human menstruation and attacks nor
revealed any published records concerning black bear
responses to menstrual blood. The U.S. Forest Service
conducted a series of experiments (Rogers et al.,
1991) which tested the responses of both male and
female black bears to human menstrual odors. The first
experiment involved the spin-cast introduction of 15
used tampons (in clusters of 5) to adult male black
bears foraging in a garbage dump. Each presentation,
therefore, gave the bears a choice between the garbage
and tampons. If the bears ate (like they did the
garbage), closely sniffed, or rolled on the tampons,
then they were considered to have paid attention to
the tampons. Of 22 presentations, the bears ignored
the used tampons 20 times (twice casual sniffs were
observed), effectively preferring the garbage in every
instance. In a second experiment, seven bears feeding
on piles of corn were offered groups of six used
tampons. Six of the bears sniffed the tampons and then
returned to their piles of corn. A yearling male
tasted one of the tampons, quickly dropped it and
returned to the corn.
A third experiment placed four used
tampons, an unused tampon, a tampon soaked in
non-menstrual human blood, and a tampon containing
rendered beef fat in the middle of a heavily traveled
bear path with the used tampons interspersed among the
others. Ten out of ten bears ate only the tampons
soaked in beef fat. In a fourth experiment, women on
different days of their period accompanied and
contacted bears who were accustomed to human
interaction and were known to investigate attractive
odors. Eleven encounters involved women wearing
tampons and one crazy woman wearing clothing through
which her menstrual blood was soaking. Of the twelve
encounters with the women, the ten bears did not pay
any attention to the lower torsos of the women.
Another woman wearing external pads during two of her
menstrual cycles hand-fed four female bears and walked
within two meters of adult male bears during bear
mating season and did not receive any attention.
Rogers et al. (1991) concluded that the lack of
interest of the bears to menstrual odors does not
prove that such odors are never attractive to bears (similar experiments resulted in
tampon feasts by polar bears lacking attractive
buffets) [Finley added the red]; however,
menstrual odors essentially were ignored.
References:
Rogers, L L., G.A. Wilker, and S.S.
Scott. 1991. Reactions of black bears to human
menstrual odors. J. Wildl. Manage. 55(4):632-634.
See also:
Cushing, B. 1983. Responses of polar
bears to human menstrual odors. Int. Conf. Bear Res.
and Manage. 5:270-274.
Herrero, S. 1974. Conflicts between man
and grizzly bears in the national parks of North
America. Int. Conf. Bear Res. and Manage. 3:121-145.
-------. 1985. Bear attacks. Nick Lyons
Books, New York, N.Y. 287pp.
Darwin's Sexy Nose [Vaginal Odors
Change During the Menstrual Cycle and Vary in Their
Appeal to Males]
Bear attacks, among other less-desired
responses to a woman's menstrual perfume, do not seem
to be frequent consequences of the olfactory
influences involving human menstruation. Many
scientific journals suggest that human males, on the
other hand, respond to vaginal cyclic scents. Doty et
al. (1975) described a study which concluded that "the
odors of human vaginal secretions vary in both
intensity and pleasantness across the stages of the
menstrual cycle." Men were asked to rate both the
intensity and pleasantness of odors arising from used
tampons from consecutive phases of the menstrual
cycle. It was found that even though there was
considerable variation across cycles from the same
donor, men claimed secretions
from pre-ovulatory and ovulatory stages were less
intense and more pleasant than during the other
phases [Finley added the red]. Data fell
short of providing substantial support to the idea
that particular staged menstrual odors were
"attractive" to men, and due to heterogeneity of
results it "is unlikely that humans can use vaginal
odors reliably to determine the general time of
ovulation."
"Unlikely" does not mean impossible,
and the logical jump made (before or after) with
studies such as the aforementioned is to attempt to
bridge some evolutionary gap between man and ape,
providing a reasonable explanation as to the
importance of menstrual olfactory cues in
communicating courtship rituals and defining timed
mating behaviors in early man. In the December 1974
edition of Science, scientists from Emory University
School of Medicine published the volatile fatty acid
content as determined by gas chromatography of 682
vaginal samples from human females. They noted that
fatty acid content increased during the late
follicular phase of the menstrual cycle and declined
progressively during the late luteal phase. The same
volatile aliphatic acids found in the human samples
(i.e. acetic, propanoic, methylpropanoic, butanoic,
methylbutanoic, and methylpentanoic) have been found
ubiquitously in the vaginal secretions of many primate
species such as the rhesus monkey, anubis baboon,
patas monkey, pigtail monkey, crab-eating monkey, and
squirrel monkey. Although scant information is
available on the importance of these compounds in
humans, say Michael et al. (1974), "The same
substances possess sex-attractant properties in other
primates." Interestingly, it was noted that similar
attraction reactions resulted when human vaginal
secretions were exposed to rhesus monkeys, and that
women on oral contraceptives had lower acid amounts
and showed no rhythmic changes during their cycle.
There is evidence to suggest in rhesus monkeys that
other odorous, non-aliphatic compounds present in
vaginal secretions serve as distinct cues to males
during the preovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle
(Goldfoot, 1981).
So did man at one time in his early
development use scent, like today's primates, as an
important reproductive communicator? Acceptance of the
argument further implies that somewhere along the
evolutionary line of man, menstrual olfactory cues
became obsolete [?]. The subsequent weakening of
human's conscious attraction to vaginal odors resulted
in the degeneration of sense of smell found in humans
today. Of course, whether one makes the leap
connecting primate olfactory cues to early man's
equally intrinsic ability to detect estrous of
Cro-magnon Jane or not, it must be accepted that
supportive, documented science just does not exist in
a less correlative form.
References:
Doty, R.L., M. Ford, G. Preti, and G.R.
Huggins. 1975. Changes in the intensity and
pleasantness of human vaginal odors during the
menstrual cycle. Science 190: 1316- 1317.
Goldfoot, D.A. 1981. Olfaction, sexual
behavior, and the pheromone hypothesis in rhesus
monkeys: A critique. Am. Zool. 21(1): 153-164.
Michael, R.P., R.W. Bonsall, and P.
Warner. 1974. Human vaginal secretions: Volatile fatty
acid content. Science 186: 1217-1219.
See also:
Bieber, I. 1959. Am. J. Psychother. 13:
851.
Michael, R.P. 1972. Acta. Endocrinol.
Suppl. 166: 322.
Michael, R.P., E.B. Keverne, and R.W.
Bonsall, 1971. Science 172: 964.
Rogers, J. and G. Beauchamp, in
Mammalian Olfaction, Reproductive Processes and
Behavior, R.L. Doty, Ed. (Academic Press, New York,
1974).
Stinkin'
Synchin' [this title is Anne Kitchell's, not the MUM director's]
The menstrual cycle not only produces
odors, rumored to serve as attractive cues, but reacts
to external odors as well. One often hears of females
living in close proximity undergoing the
synchronization of their menstruation onset times. In
an article published by Russell et al. (1980), it was
stated that "menstrual synchrony is not due to changes
in food, awareness of menstrual timing or lunar
cycles, and [it is] suggested that the only
significant factors seem to be the amount of time the
women spend together and the lengths of their cycles."
They conducted a really cool experiment in an attempt
to demonstrate if the olfactory cues of one very
"regular" woman could influence the timing of
menstrual onset in other women.
Eleven women, whose mean age was 28.5
years, none of whom were lesbians or were taking oral
contraceptives, volunteered to have an odor placed on
their upper lip three times a week during a four month
period. The odor was extracted from the axillary
region (the armpit!) of a female donor with a history
of a very regular menstrual cycle. She did not use
underarm deodorant or perfumed soap, nor was she
allowed to wash under her arms during the odor
gathering period. Odor collection involved having the
donor wear 4X4 cotton pads under her arms for 24
hours. The subjects had the pads rubbed on their upper
lips and asked not to wash their faces for six hours.
The group of control subjects received the same
treatment, with the exception that they did not
receive the odor. Test subjects and control subjects
had no knowledge as to which group they belonged.
The results indicated with statistical
significance of p < 0.01 that odors from one woman
can influence the the menstrual cycle of another. The
mean difference in days between the menstrual onset of
tested subjects and the donor at the beginning of the
experiment was 9.2 days. This average decreased to 3.4
days by the end of the experiment with four of the
five subjects synchronizing to within one day of the
donor's onset. The control group averaged 8.0 days
from the donor's onset in the pre-treatment month and
9.2 days in the post-treatment month.
The possibility was noted that "the
mechanism of [odor] transfer did not involve the nose
at all, but diffusion of chemical compounds through
the skin which may occur when the sample was placed on
the subject's upper lip." If compounds placed under
the nose were volatile and the subject unaware of
their presence, then can one properly use the term
"odor" anyway?
The olfactory influences on the
menstrual cycle of crab-eating monkeys (Macaca
fascicularis) have been studied along the same lines
as human synch experiments. Wallis et al. (1986)
placed twelve female monkeys in adjacent cages
allowing for the occurrence of physical contact. Only
one of the females had a history of regularly-timed
menstruation. A control set was established in the
same manner with the exception that cages were
situated far enough apart so no physical contact was
possible. Within the course of the six-month study,
the experimental subjects with irregular flow tended
to normalize, although cycle synchronization was not
observed as a trend. In the control group, irregular
subjects continued to experience abnormally long
cycles. The authors suggested, "Close physical contact
may serve to transmit chemical and/or hormonal cues
that can normalize the menstrual cycle of crab-eating
monkeys."
References:
Russell, M.J., G.M. Switz, and K.
Thompson. 1980. Olfactory influences on the human
menstrual cycle. Pharmacol, Biochem., & Behav. 13:
737-738.
Wallis, J. 1986. The effect of female
proximity and social interaction on the menstrual
cycle of crab-eating monkeys (Macaca fascicularis).
Primates 27(1): 83-94.
Doty, R.L. 1981. Olfactory
communication in humans. Chem. Senses 6(4): 351-376.
New Evidence Shows That Pheromones Influence Menstrual
Cycles (March 1998)
The scientist who first published the
observation that women living together sometimes
menstruate together has now told us why.
Martha McClintock, a professor at the
University of Chicago, wrote in
the British journal Nature [392,
177(1998)], which published her initial finding 27
years ago (Menstrual synchrony
and suppression. Nature 229: 244-245, 1971), that odorless chemical signals given
off by women - pheromones - can change other women's
menstrual cycles. (See an earlier discussion
of a similar experiment on this page above.) And see
also the photo I took of
her at the conference of The Society for Menstrual
Cycle Research, June 1997.
The authors
(McClintock and K. Stern) summarize it in the
journal:
They found
that odourless compounds from the armpits of women
in the late follicular phase of
their menstrual cycles accelerated the
preovulatory surge of luteinizing hormone of
recipient women and shortened their menstrual
cycles. Axillary (underarm) compounds from the
same donors which were collected later in the
menstrual cycle (at ovulation) had the opposite
effect: they delayed the luteinizing-hormone surge
of the recipients and lengthened their menstrual
cycles. By showing in a fully controlled
experiment that the timing of ovulation can be
manipulated, this study provides definitive
evidence of human pheromones.
They regard this as
definitive proof that human pheromones exist.
It will be interesting
to find out what organ perceives these pheromones.
Are Sharks
Attracted to Menstrual Blood?
The next item I took from an
Internet page by Samuel Shelanski, M.D. called Diving
and
Menstruation, copyright 1994-1996 Rodale
Press. There's much more on that page worth reading,
including potential health problems caused by diving
during menstruation.
Over the course of their periods, most
women lose between 50 to 150 ml (one-quarter to
three-quarters cup) of blood and tissue. While this is
not a physiologically significant amount, many women
fear that this discharge may attract sharks. The truth
is that women divers are attacked by sharks less often
than men are. In his book Diving and Subaquatic
Medicine, Dr. Carl Edmonds suggests that this may in
part be due to a repellent effect of some component of
the menstrual blood that is released. While this has
not been formally tested, it is fair to say that the
danger of shark attack from diving during one's period
is substantially less than what results from other
activities, such as spear fishing.
See also the history-making article by Martha
McClintock, Menstrual
synchrony and suppression (1971, in Nature).
See a patent (U.S. 3948254, 1976) for a "vulvar deodorant system"
See also Australian douche ad (ca.
1900) - Fresca douche powder
(U.S.A.) (date ?) - Kotique
douche liquid ad, 1974 (U.S.A.) - Liasan (1) genital wash ad,
1980s (Germany) - Liasan (2)
genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1928
(U.S.A.) - Lysol douche
liquid ad, 1948 (U.S.A.) - Marvel
douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Midol menstrual pain pill ad,
1938 (U.S.A.) - Midol booklet
(selections), 1959 (U.S.A.) - Mum
deodorant cream ad, 1926 (U.S.A.) - Myzone menstrual pain pills
ad, 1952 (Australia) - Pristeen
genital spray ad, 1969 (U.S.A.) - Spalt pain tablets, 1936
(Germany) - Sterizol
douche liquid ad, 1926 (U.S.A.) - Vionell
genital spray ad, 1970, with Cheryl Tiegs (Germany) -
Zonite douche liquid ad, 1928
(U.S.A.)
The Perils of Vaginal Douching
(essay by Luci Capo Rome)
© 1998 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or
distribute any of the work on this Web site in any
manner or medium without written permission of the
author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
|