Crinkle, pop, gulp: many women pop The Pill every single day without giving it a second thought. For decades oral contraceptives have been infused in our culture, yet controversy and mystery still surround the cute little packet of pills toted around by so many high school or college women.
Indeed, last year marked the 50th anniversary of oral contraceptive birth control. If you think about it, this magical little pill has only been around about as long as your parents have been alive. Your grandparents, on the other hand, grew up in a time before the innovation came to fruition.
Many of my female friends casually mention they are on the pill, yet most have never questioned this seemingly perfect pharmaceutical, let alone heard of the implications on relationships it can have.
Puget Sound Assistant Professor of Psychology David Moore, Ph.D, considers romantic relationships to be one of his areas of expertise. In the psychology department, he teaches classes such as the upper division seminar on romantic relationships. Moore prefaced our conversation about oral contraceptives with a disclaimer that he very much believes in both safe sex and using some form of birth control-whether oral contraceptives or alternative forms-in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
In the context of his specialty course on romantic relationships, Moore teaches on the role of scent in human attraction and how women, at least those who are normally ovulating, appear to have a natural ability to ‘sniff out’ genetically compatible mates.
“One interesting research finding is that oral contraceptives, despite their advantages of being a convenient method of birth control, may interfere with this process and may alter a woman’s perception of a mate’s natural scent,” Moore said. This scent, different from pheromones, is related to something called the Major Histocompatibility Complex, or MHC for short.
“The MHC is series of about 100 genes that code for cell surface markers (proteins) that help us recognize the self from foreign agents and is highly involved in immune response. Our own MHC can be thought of as a genetic signature or fingerprint,” Moore said.
It seems attraction based on scent is thought of as primitive. Scent is a central mate-deciding factor in nonhuman animals, yet we employ much the same method in our selection of a mate.
“It’s not the smell of perfume or cologne that matters when it comes to detecting a mate’s MHC, but this natural scent. In fact, there is evidence that these various artificial smells may mask or distract from our natural scent,” Moore said.
A surprising gender difference arises when analyzing the literature, though it plays an evolutionary role.
“Women have a more sensitive sense of smell to sniff out genetically compatible mates. This makes sense on an evolutionary level to allow detection of a sufficiently dissimilar MHC, which provides the offspring with greater genetic variability and therefore higher resistance to diseases and toxins. When the MHC is too similar, that’s basically what inbreeding is,” Moore said.
One study outlined by Moore was Claus Wedenberg’s study dubbed “The Sweaty T-shirt Study.”
A sample of men were given a t-shirt to sleep in for two nights in a row with the instruction to not use artificial scents such as soap, deodorant and cologne. A sample of women were given the sealed t-shirts with no identification or visual of the t-shirt wearer and asked to explain the smell, including the sexiness or attractiveness. Researchers also determined the MHC of the men and women.
The results indicated that in women who were normally ovulating, that is, not on oral contraceptives, rated as more attractive those with a MHC in a happy medium between very dissimilar and highly similar relative to their own. Women taking oral contraceptives rated those with highly similar MHCs to their own as more attractive.
“Evolutionarily, this makes sense because oral contraceptives basically fool the body into thinking that it’s pregnant,” Moore said. “So when a woman is pregnant or with a body tricked into thinking it is pregnant, it makes sense that she would want to spend more time with kin who would have similar MHCs, who could protect her or potentially the baby.” Additional effects of high levels of MHCs similarity include various complications with fertility, pregnancy and childbirth.
With this background, it is no surprise that there are practical implications on relationships when MHCs are too similar.
“Partners that have the most similar MHCs are more like to have lower sexual satisfaction, sexual responsiveness (in women), increased thoughts of cheating and actual cheating. That does suggest there is an implication on not only child bearing but the relationship itself,” Moore said.
That said, Moore also added that there is much more to attraction than just scent, so we must take this with a grain of salt. Compatibility also depends on factors such as appearance, facial cues, personality, similarity of values and sense of humor, for example. With this wonderful variety in attraction, it has to be said that a good contraceptive fit differs from person to person.
Oral contraceptives are a great resource and are in no way the enemy. But, given the various effects, it is nice to know that alternative methods are available. This is best discussed with a health professional to find the best individual fit.
Plus, there are always condoms. We are so very lucky to have easily available condoms, especially the free ones in CHWS. Thus, there is no excuse not to be safe and smart about sex.
