What are Pheromones? Discovery The Published Science Athena Pheromones
The Washington Post, Page 1, 11/18/86.
Copyright -The Washington Post Newspaper.
by Boyce Rensberger
"Scientists in Philadelphia have established for the first time that the human body produces pheromones, special aromatic chemical compounds discharged by one individual that affect the sexual physiology of another. Although animals have long been known to secrete pheromones, which typically function as sex attractants, and although the existence of such chemicals in humans has long been speculated, the new research is the first to establish their existence in humans.
It's remarkable. A very clear pattern has been emerging and it confirms that a woman's optimal reproductive health is a part of a finely tuned system and that a man, on a regular and sustained basis, is an essential part of it," said Dr. Winnifred B. Cutler, who has led the research effort. "It wasn't clear until our most recent studies how important male essence really is," she said, "but now that we know this, it helps to explain our earlier findings. You might say that exposure to pheromones is the essence of sex."
Chemicals in men's bodies can cause their female sex partners to be more fertile, have more regular menstrual cycles and milder menopause, landmark research shows. And women who have sex with men at least once a week benefit most from the chemicals, which apparently work through the sense of smell.
"The exciting part is the effect we have on each other. Men are important to women," says Dr. Winnifred B. Cutler of Philadelphia, whose studies show for the first time that chemicals called pheromones exist in humans. Pheromones have long been known to exist in animals, as scents that attract sex partners. Cutler's new studies...show women are affected by pheromones from men and women."
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"Throughout the animal kingdom, it was well known (by 1979) that females emit sex attractants that cause males (of the same species) to approach. Animal pheromones were so well understood, by the late 70s, that manufacturers were marketing them as pest controls; pheromones were used to lure and divert animals and bugs to traps to prevent crop and flower damage. I was fortunate to be one of the scientists working on the research that proved the existence of human pheromones for the first time.
The discovery of human sex pheromones appeared in front page stories internationally when my colleagues and I succeeded in peer-reviewed acceptance for publication in scientific journals in 1986. We provided the proof that women and men emitted pheromones into the atmosphere and we showed that extracted pheromones could be collected, frozen for over a year, thawed and then applied topically above the upper lip of recipients to mimic some of the pheromonal effects found in nature."