Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2015 July 14

= July 14 =

Do women on their menstrual cycle have a distinct smell?
Many mammals give off a pungent smell in their urine, when in heat. Is this the same with human women. Obviously, women (normally) wash themselves so any distinct odour may be less apparent. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.105.58.88 (talk) 11:46, 14 July 2015 (UTC)


 * See:Body_odor Also the sex pheromones (by there very nature) have to be short lived in order to provide the signal at the right time. So washing does not help. That may be why the gentler sex shower so very, very,  very often, as it leave these sex pheromones as their  dominant bouquet...  so they subconsciously connect with this - and take yet another shower.--Aspro (talk) 12:01, 14 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Citation needed. AlexTiefling (talk) 13:56, 15 July 2015 (UTC)
 * These things are self evident to anyone that lives in a house with two bathrooms but can't use either because one's female  teenagers spend hours and hours in them.--Aspro (talk) 21:55, 16 July 2015 (UTC)


 * A correction of the OP's premise: "Humans have menstrual cycles rather than an estrous cycle ['heat']." (The linked article defines the differences.) Additionally, women do not (typically) ovulate while menstruating. Menstruation typically begins about 14 days after ovulation. ZMBrak (talk) 14:29, 14 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Right. The questioner may be interested in our hidden estrus article. -- ToE 16:00, 14 July 2015 (UTC)


 * I don't know about women's urine, but having lived with a variety of women over time (some related to me and some not) I can confirm that their body odour certainly changes over the menstrual "month", becoming particularly strong, and in some cases very unpleasant, during menstruation itself. (Note that I seem to be more sensitive to smells of all kinds than average.) RomanSpa (talk) 13:21, 19 July 2015 (UTC)