Birth control pills affect women's taste in men

by nate at 12/03/08 8:11AM
I thought this article was interesting, and a little scary. I've heard before that the pill can decrease women's sex drive, but if there's anything to this, it actually makes women attracted to other men.

"Recent research suggests that the contraceptive pill—which prevents women from ovulating by fooling their body into believing it is pregnant—could affect which types of men women desire. Going on or off the pill during a relationship, therefore, may tempt a woman away from her man."

Birth Control Pills Affect Women's Taste in Men
I mean, most women who engage in premarital sex (I'm guessing) are on the pill when they're dating / courting, and don't go off the pill until they've been married a while and want to have kids -- So when they start having kids, a switch gets flipped and the woman starts liking a different type of guy than the one she married? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

Most Christians I know who use birth control pills didn't start on the pill until after getting engaged, a few months before the wedding. That scenario is a little better, since they presumably made the decision to get married without external hormonal influence, but then it could make for a trying early marriage, if the wife goes on the pill and suddenly starts liking other guys more.

I'm not going to try to draw a big conclusion here, just thought it was interesting, and wondered what other folks thought though.
  • chessman
    I can't really speak for that conclusion (though I doubt the effect is so strong as to provide signifiant additional temptation) but I can speak from experience that the pill changes a woman. When Jensie came off the pill, the only way I could describe it was that she was 'more Jensie' than before. Which makes sense, because the whole purpose of the pill is to screw up hormones, the same hormones recognized pretty universally to cause emotion-driven actions.
    by chessman at 12/03/08 11:26AM
  • robbio
    psycho on. psycho off.

    ...yet for some dumb reason I'm still lookin' for a girl
    by robbio at 12/04/08 12:06AM
  • radthanael
    I can think of at least one reason why looking isn't dumb. Hint: it has to do with birth control. And it's totally worth it.
    by radthanael at 12/04/08 12:25AM
  • justcallmejoe
    stupid catholics why can't they QUIT BEING RIGHT ABOUT FREAKING EVERYTHING?!?!?! geez.
    by justcallmejoe at 12/04/08 1:06PM
  • nate
    :-) Well, last time I checked, condoms don't affect women's taste in men. Er, wait ... Hmm, come to think of it ... .
    by nate at 12/05/08 12:00PM
  • nate
    (sorry if this discussion is a little "adult-themed" ... I just figured if you can have a discussion on prostitution here, why not one on birth control?)
    by nate at 12/05/08 12:01PM
  • mjintexas
    I'd have to read the scientific study itself because there aren't any specific statistics here. If we're talking 1-2% preference, I wouldn't think it's a big deal. If it's 75%, that might be worth noting.
    by mjintexas at 12/08/08 12:42PM
  • nate
    Hmm, this looks like it may be the study in question. It has a link on that page to a PDF of the full text.

    I also found this study that also studied MHC preferences for women on and off birth control. I don't have a lot of time to pick through these at work, but unless they're "how to lie with statistics" graphs, the charts look like the swing is more than 1-2%.
    by nate at 12/08/08 3:43PM
  • nate
    I read through the first study last night ... if I read it right, it didn't look like the women had a change of scent preference, so much as, they had a preference when not on the pill, and they didn't when on it. It references a previous study where the women read a book about scent preferences to acclimate them to the idea ... but it also mentions, right there in the study, that it would only have a significant impact on relationship choices for women for whom scent was a significant factor in choosing a partner.

    So in other words, There may be an unnoticed scent-attraction factor that people don't think about, but really does make a difference, but assuming they're not, the pill isn't going to make you go after another guy unless you got married because you like the way a guy smells when he's not wearing deodorant. I can't say I know too many couples who would list that in their top 10 reasons for marrying someone.
    by nate at 12/09/08 9:57AM
  • mjintexas
    I haven't had time to read through the stats yet, but one other thing I'd wonder about is the seeming insistence on finding "reasons justifying cheating."
    by mjintexas at 12/09/08 10:31AM
  • nate
    heh, maybe one of the researchers had cheated on her boyfriend after going on the pill, and just wanted to feel better about it by blaming it on something. :-)
    by nate at 12/09/08 2:05PM