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"
 
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Odor, menstrual and otherwise
(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?
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.
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.)
See also http://www.pheromones.com
for a Web site selling a book on pheromones.
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
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