Pheromone triples women's sexual success

A dab of artificial sweat can hugely increase your chance for romance, say researchers in California. They found that a commercial synthetic "pheromone" tripled the sexual success of women.

Psychologist Norma McCoy and her student Lisa Pitino at San Francisco State University found in a study of 36 women that sexual behaviour with men was three times as high in women who added a sexy chemical to their perfume, compared to women who received a placebo.

McCoy believes the additive, known only as Athena Pheromone 10:13, is making them more attractive to men. She rules out an alternative explanation, that the pheromone is increasing sexual drive, because masturbation was not increased.

"It's a very impressive study with data that looks incredible," says Joan Friebely of Harvard University who is now looking at the effect of the same pheromone in post-menopausal women. But other experts say it is difficult to make sense of the experiment until 10:13 - whose composition is a trade secret - is revealed.

Sexual attention

Pheromones are chemicals that animals emit to attract sexual attention. They are crucial to the mating behaviour of many insects and their existence has been firmly established in mice and hamsters.

Mammalian pheromones appear to act by binding to protein receptors located in the nose. But the role of pheromones in humans remains controversial, despite reported effects on menstrual cycles and relaxation reflexes in the opposite sex.

McCoy's colleague, Winnifred Cutler, founded an institute that searches for human pheromones and sells synthetic versions. In 1998, the pair co-authored a paper on another secret Athena formula called 10X that increased the sexual success of men (Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol 20, p 463).

But McCoy says the new report is scientifically and financially independent from Cutler, who only provided the blinded samples.

Spiked perfume

McCoy and her student recruited healthy heterosexual women and asked them to record their normal frequencies of sexual behaviours including male approaches, kissing, heavy petting, sexual intercourse and masturbation for two weeks. Then for six weeks, 19 women were randomly assigned a placebo to mix with their perfume, while 17 others were given 10:13.

The results were dramatic: 74 per cent of the women using the pheromone reported an increase in three or more of the activities and an increase in sexual intercourse was one of the strongest effects.

In contrast, only 23 per cent of the placebo group reported a rise in three or more categories, and this was mostly in the less intimate activities such as informal dates.

But other researchers are less impressed. "I'm not excited by this paper and I'm wary of this mystery chemical ," says George Preti of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. In the 1980s, Preti co-authored a paper with Cutler on the powerful biological effects of pheromones in human sweat but he is not convinced that Cutler has since purified the key compound. He also cautions that dosage will be critical - at high doses "you might not like what's happening to you," he says.

Cutler told New Scientist she will reveal the formula once her patent, which has been pending for 10 years, is granted. She also points out that Athena 10:13 is not used as a drug, but as make-up. Few cosmetics can boast a peer-reviewed, randomised, placebo-controlled studies to back up their claims, she says.

"And if a woman using this gets more affection, more dates, more loving, she probably doesn't care what receptor it's binding," Cutler adds.

Philip Cohen, San Francisco

British Psychological Society