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Birth-control pills are known to affect women’s taste in men, at least in laboratory experiments. Now a study of real-world couples suggests that this pill-related preference change could have long-term consequences for a relationship’s quality and outcome.
In the lab, women using oral contraceptives show a weaker preference for masculine men—those with high testosterone levels and the corresponding physical hallmarks—than their non-pill-using counterparts. To investigate this issue in a real-world setting, psychologist S. Craig Roberts of the University of Stirling in Scotland and his collaborators gave online surveys to more than 2,500 women from various countries. According to the results, published online October 12 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, participants who used hormonal contraceptives while choosing their partner were less attracted to him and less sexually satisfied during their relationship than were individuals who did not use hormonal birth control. Pill users were happier with their mate’s financial support and other nonsexual aspects of the relationship, however, and they were less likely to separate.
This relationship stability might be caused by the bias of women on the pill toward low-testosterone men, who tend to be more faithful. Roberts suggests that women who met their mate while taking the pill might want to switch to nonhormonal contraceptives several months before getting married to test whether their feelings for their partner remain the same.
This article was published in print as "The Problem with the Pill."
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16 Comments
Add CommentUm, did this 'scientist' ever hear of the little disconnect between correlation and causality? How is it not perfectly obvious the original correlation was jumped a couple of steps to some pretty dubious conclusions?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlternatively, prescribe testosterone to the men, LOL
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI hoped to find information based on solid data. Let's hope the full article draws it's conclusions from sources beyond online surveys and speculation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow was the determination of "less masculine" men made?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo mention here...
Definitely not the article that will make me go out and buy the issue... very weak.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEffective birth control methods may well contribute to the increasing instability of the cohesive traditional family in technologically developed societies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe hypothesis I would like to see tested states: Couples utilizing extremely effective methods of birth control will display decreased stability in the couple’s relationship. The instability will be evidenced by shorter average duration of the relationships, accompanied by increased sexual infidelity of both male and female partners in the relationship.
The theory prompting this hypothesis is that our instinctive drive to reproduce will, at least partially, override our intellectual desire to limit reproduction for economic or lifestyle benefits. Evolution has hard wired us to reproduce. When we are actively engaged in a monogamous sexual relationship, and no offspring are forthcoming, our reproductive instinct insistently and relentlessly instructs us to seek reproductive opportunities elsewhere, destabilizing reproductively unproductive relationships.
Intellectually, we may override our instincts, but the increasing failure of the traditional core family exhibited in developed countries where effective and affordable birth control is commonplace may well be a manifestation of our response to the all important command from our genetic puppet master to “Go forth and multiply.”.
There is, perhaps, a hormonal feedback mechanism contributing to our sense of family bonding and feeling of contentedness produced by the condition of pregnancy, nursing, or the bodies of growing children themselves, the absence of which adversely affects the ability of a couple to remain satisfactorily united in a long term relationship. Discovery of a bond-promoting hormone associated with continued reproduction would open the possibility of supplementing hormonal birth control pills to promote increased family permanence, while still providing a means to lower birthrates where desired.
The effect of such a hormone, if discovered, would be difficult to isolate from the effects of societal mandates and cultural pressures to responsibly care for children, but some creative grad student should be able to devise a test accomplishing the task.
I would enjoy seeing this explored by someone with more time, and more appropriate credentials, than I am able to bring to the task.
Just a thought.
Because...you just read it...while taking your female contraceptive...defense rests...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"...The effect of such a hormone, if discovered, would be difficult to isolate from the effects of societal mandates and cultural pressures to responsibly care for children..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe drug...the contraceptive has not been around, over the counter, years...drugs, especially hormones, Do affect women..at least Once a month...and now, for the first time in 3 billion years human females can buy em...you provided us with a clear breakdown on what you think is wrong with, well, everything....used a lot of big words...and seemed pretty tense....hummm...get off the pill missy...yep...get off the pill...
I can feel you...oh yeah..." what is less masculine.." does point out some level of subjectivity, yep...yep...I mean, look at it: Women craved and one woman married, for 43 minutes....Adolph Flipping Hitler. Women, that woman especially, are very generous with their lives. Nobody tried to marry Jesus Christ and Ghandi almost lost his wife, etc, etc, etc...Masculine? I think it is safe to say women even reach into the grey area to find a man...that should be the next line of research. Ask women what they think/feel is " more masculine " let's get down to the nitty gritty here...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHuh? Wha? I mean....how could they...you just made it up..!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAfter reading through the comments so far, it seems evident that the article provokes insecurities of all sorts. Or is it that the comments provoke my insecurities? I can't really say much for the data itself, or whether there any reasonable conclusions, other than that someone found the study worth paying for.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI quit dating years ago after another failed relationship just because I decided I'm not good at it. It's really too bad, because it turns out that relationships are important and worth taking seriously. It's just really difficult to get serious about attachments based on the relative qualities of body parts (real or otherwise), fancy cars, and big houses.
I have always found that if I thought I knew what went wrong, I was actually leaping to a judgment based on nuances that couldn't be approximated and all I was seeking was a way to feel better about myself, and I don't need a person for my reassurance anyhow when I can just get a dog and use common sense. Common sense, as I use the term here, does include giving up on sex since no one appears to be able to be a rational adult about the subject.
I have heard the behavioral effects of hormonal changes in the body can be lasting, considerably more so than the effects of even a long term drug addiction. That makes the issue of biological influences on relationship stability vaguely relevant to most people, doesn't it? Most people among us seem to insist on pursuing romantic love.
There is a problem that comes to light, though. What are the effects of all of the factors that must be teased out in order to make guesses at biological factors, which appears to be the best we can do? What about the effects on modern relationships presented by the expensive "industrial dating complex", our superficial expectations, assumptions we derive from gender roles that are in flux, our personal and individual insecurities, our apparently overbearing male and female insecurities, cultural biases, I don't even know where to stop digging here. It's no wonder so many Christians are deciding values based on a 1000s year-old compendium of make-believe that can't be interpreted, a lot like science these days.
What about the effects of a particular psychological influence we all bring to our relationships, like the fact that we're all constantly full of crap and running around trying to avoid the possibility of getting hurt? We attach most to our fear of pain and we are quite sophisticated in the ways we hide that from ourselves.
" After reading through the comments so far, it seems evident that the article provokes insecurities of all sorts."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNope, nope...insecurities...at my age? No chance now baby...I KNOW who I am and I worked hard to make sure, I did not age, get older and have to live out the last 100 years of my life with a partner called, 'regret.'
"I quit dating years ago after another failed relationship just because I decided I'm not good at it."
uh-huh...I quit smoking years ago...before I even started...because I noticed that when I took that first puff, I coughed alot. And, people who had been smokin' for years, coughed alot...it was a bad habit. Loving, caring, belonging, these habits, require Strength because loving eyes Cannot see... I also learned -way back when -that, when humans get smoke in their eyes, they often 'cry.' U dig??
Hey..."fancy cars, and big houses." You were either dating my ex, or you are a robot (based upon your name) who did not know that you could have gone to more than 150 nations where western, extremist, material values are a minority. Okay 3CPO?
"It's no wonder so many Christians are deciding values based on a 1000s year-old compendium of make-believe that can't be interpreted, a lot like science these days."
Wha...? Huh.....? Hard to interpret...what are you talkin' 'bout?
"Do unto others as you would them do unto you." "Love your enemies."
" Pray for kings and potentates and those in high places so that we may live peaceful lives..." Honor your father and your mother." I am not having any trouble with Jesus, heck no...the trouble I'm havin' is doing all this good stuff to all the &ssholes I keep findin' in the human gene pool! Science is cool too...it aint that Hard man...: 1+1=2, rocks are hard, water is soft, earthquakes are where you should not build your house, the Chinese are tryin' to copy everybody's science, etc, etc, etc...and I can count on all this stuff giving way to new stuff, one-mo-time-little-bit-mo.
Look 3CPO, don't, "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel..." Come on down to the club this weekend and I will introduce ya to some Mature adults. I am sure some of them swing your way. You seem like the intelligent, sensitive, type - those are back in vogue with the girlies these days - and, yeah, maybe a few women have hurt cha, but..hey...just blame it on the contraceptives, yeahhhhh! Wadda Ya say?
I'm waiting for ya to write me back...
This magazine reports in vernacular language peer-reviewed studies, experiments, and their results.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThose who have attended colleges and been involved with such endeavors clearly understand that their proposals for studies must be well-grounded in previous studies and experiments.
When suggesting conclusions for their work, scientists, especially in work published in the Nature Group of publications, receive critical peer review, and comment should specify exactly where the reviewers have erred, where authors have erred, and cite sources (studies and experiments) that favor the commentor's assertions.
Frantic desire to disagree is not grounds for dispute.
Such a comment as I respond to here is inappropriate and its premises are unfounded.
Why did the study not mention the fact that the pill changes the hormonal body balance into a virtual 'pregnancy' mode, which in turn can change a female's 'mood' into 'moodiness' (as I can attest from past personal experience.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany studies have also shown that, with prolonged use of the pill, there is a definite loss of libido as a side effect to be taken into account; which explains a lot about what the study mentioned.
How about the idea that women who want to have a baby go for the more attractive men? Not too great a surprise I think.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSomeone?… please call, the punctuation police…
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