Women More Sensitive to Body Odors than Men

If there ever was a man who thought he could easily mask the smell of underarm sweat with some deodorant or special anti-perspiration product without washing, he should reconsider that. A new study on women’s ability to detect body odor comes to show that they are always able to pick out the smell of sweat, as opposed to men, who can be more easily fooled in this respect, WebMD informs.

The study, conducted by the Monell Chemical Senses Center, a nonprofit research institute, and published in the Flavour and Fragrance Journal, also establishes that, when it comes to the body odor itself, both men and women are equally able to distinguish it. The difference comes, though, when the odor is mixed with deodorants and other fragrances, where men have problems sensing it, but women don’t.

In order for researchers to establish this, the participants in the study were asked to sniff vials of underarm sweat from both men and women. Initially, the odor was not mixed with any other fragrance, which showed that there was no gender difference in the ability to sense it. However, when other chemicals were added, men seemed to be having problems picking out the body odor, presumably because women were more sensitive to it, since they used the information collected that way to choose a mate.

“It is quite difficult to block a woman’s awareness of body odor. In contrast, it seems rather easy to do so in men.” lead author Charles J. Wysocki, a behavioral neuroscientist at Monell, says for the aforementioned publication. Speaking of blocking, the study has also established that men’s body odor is harder to block than women’s. “Though the vials of body odor from men and women were equally strong, nine of the fragrance chemicals blocked the smell of male underarm sweat, while 25 of fragrance chemicals blocked the smell of female underarm odor.” WebMD adds.

This is not the first study to show that women really do use their nose when it comes to men. Back in January, another research demonstrated that ladies who were involved in a serious relationship could recognize their partner by their smell, while they struggled to identify their male friends using the same method, wherefrom the conclusion that love could alter a woman’s sense of smell.