Feeling pretty? Hormones may lead to more... quoted from Oddnews

[AllardChardon]

Feeling pretty? Hormones may lead to more...

(Reuters) – Women with high levels of oestrogen not only look and feel prettier -- but they may act on those feelings by moving from man to man, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

Oestrogen, the so-called female hormone, affects fertility and has been shown to make women dress more provocatively and show more thrill-seeking behaviour.

Dr. Kristina Durante of The University of Texas at Austin and colleagues found that young women felt more attractive when they had high levels of an oestrogen known as estradiol, and they acted on those feelings.

"Women with higher estradiol reported a greater likelihood of flirting, kissing and having a serious affair with someone other than their primary partner and were marginally more likely to date another man," Durante's team wrote in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters.

"Results provide support for the relationship between physical beauty and fertility and suggest that women high in reproductive health engage in opportunistic serial monogamy -- being open to affairs and moving on to a new relationship if a higher-quality mate becomes available."

Durante's team tested 52 female undergraduates aged 17 to 30 who were not taking hormone contraceptives. They took two estradiol samples from each, as hormone levels fluctuate from week to week.

They had the women rate their own attractiveness and showed their photographs to others to rate, as well.

"High-estradiol women were considered significantly more physically attractive by themselves and others," Durante and colleagues wrote.

The high-oestrogen women also reported more sexual behaviour -- especially outside of a relationship, although it was not linked to one-night stands.

"Our results are consistent with the possibility that highly fertile women are not easily satisfied by their long-term partners and are especially motivated to become acquainted with other, presumably more desirable, men," they concluded.

The findings fit in with many other studies showing that hormones influence the behaviour and success of both men and women. Earlier this week, U.S. and British researchers showed that male financial traders whose finger lengths indicate high testosterone levels in the womb made more money.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox)

*** Finally, a perfectly good explanation for my unconventional behavior! LOL

 

[AllardChardon]

I am a little surprized that no one commented on this article.

From my earliest memories, I have always loved looking at myself. Even though I am older, I still like looking at myself. "Vain" I was called by others and family alike. Once I was old enough to understand what "vain" meant, I had to agree with them. I was/am very concerned with my looks and like gazing at myself in mirrors. Now the lighting is crucial, though.

So this part made sense to me:

Durante's team tested 52 female undergraduates aged 17 to 30 who were not taking hormone contraceptives. They took two estradiol samples from each, as hormone levels fluctuate from week to week.

They had the women rate their own attractiveness and showed their photographs to others to rate, as well.

"High-estradiol women were considered significantly more physically attractive by themselves and others," Durante and colleagues wrote.

Anyone else out there accused of being vain besides me?

 

[Amritatouch]

AC I agree with you 100%....I like looking at YOU too!

 

[neonlyte]

Vain... but that is just me.

I think you look delightful, but I'd like you to lose the hat, for starters.

The problem with this type of study is no woman I know checks her oestrogen level before going out on a date or a night on the town. Thus, the entire research is discredited because it findings are supposition rather than founded in fact.

You don't hear many women saying: 'I'm staying into tonight because my oestrogen levels are low.'

More likely, they lack self esteem and neither believe themselves to be 'beautiful' (what ever the fuck that is) nor capable of attracting the 'man of their dreams'.

When it comes to science v's psychology, I'd take psychology every time.

 

[Katyusha]

I am a little surprized that no one commented on this article.

From my earliest memories, I have always loved looking at myself. Even though I am older, I still like looking at myself. "Vain" I was called by others and family alike. Once I was old enough to understand what "vain" meant, I had to agree with them. I was/am very concerned with my looks and like gazing at myself in mirrors. Now the lighting is crucial, though.

So this part made sense to me:

Durante's team tested 52 female undergraduates aged 17 to 30 who were not taking hormone contraceptives. They took two estradiol samples from each, as hormone levels fluctuate from week to week.

They had the women rate their own attractiveness and showed their photographs to others to rate, as well.

"High-estradiol women were considered significantly more physically attractive by themselves and others," Durante and colleagues wrote.

Anyone else out there accused of being vain besides me?

No...much of whether or not you feel attractive is purely psychological; I was teased relentlessly about my clothes and hair and general appearance during my childhood and early teens, and by the end of my freshman year of high school I couldn't stand looking at myself in the mirror much. This is a problem that was reinforced by a couple of boyfriends I had early in college who would point to the actresses on Baywatch, the Victoria's Secret models, etc., etc., etc., and tell me that "I needed to look more like them." They would point out various flaws I had that these women didn't have (or didn't have visible on the shows or in their pics) and that further destroyed my self-image. One guy who claims to love you but does that is a jackass, two in a row doing that will quickly convince you that you'll never be pretty or sexy, that there's something intrinsically wrong with you that prevents you from being attractive.

This, of course, is at complete odds with my belief that any woman can be beautiful with the right haircut/hairstyle and clothes that are flattering for her. Go figure.

That said, my mother and sisters have always said that I'm an outrageous flirt. I do tend to dress more provocatively than either of my sisters do, even when I'm dressing conservatively for work (it might be a long-sleeved turtleneck sweater or a loose skirt that goes below my knees, but it still comes across as provocative somehow). I don't know how much this is connected to my estrogen levels though because, well, I'm on the pill and I haven't the least idea how fertile I am without it.

One other thing, I agree with Neon...I'd like to see a pic of you without your hat.

 

[neonlyte]

Double entendre

 

[neonlyte]

No...much of whether or not you feel attractive is purely psychological; I was teased relentlessly about my clothes and hair and general appearance during my childhood and early teens, and by the end of my freshman year of high school I couldn't stand looking at myself in the mirror much. This is a problem that was reinforced by a couple of boyfriends I had early in college who would point to the actresses on Baywatch, the Victoria's Secret models, etc., etc., etc., and tell me that "I needed to look more like them." They would point out various flaws I had that these women didn't have (or didn't have visible on the shows or in their pics) and that further destroyed my self-image. One guy who claims to love you but does that is a jackass, two in a row doing that will quickly convince you that you'll never be pretty or sexy, that there's something intrinsically wrong with you that prevents you from being attractive.

This, of course, is at complete odds with my belief that any woman can be beautiful with the right haircut/hairstyle and clothes that are flattering for her. Go figure.

That said, my mother and sisters have always said that I'm an outrageous flirt. I do tend to dress more provocatively than either of my sisters do, even when I'm dressing conservatively for work (it might be a long-sleeved turtleneck sweater or a loose skirt that goes below my knees, but it still comes across as provocative somehow). I don't know how much this is connected to my estrogen levels though because, well, I'm on the pill and I haven't the least idea how fertile I am without it.

One other thing, I agree with Neon...I'd like to see a pic of you without your hat.

You don't really need my sympathy, and your last full paragraph really does it for me Now a knitted skirt... that would have me on my knees We are such idiots, us men

God, you've brought out the wool fetish in me

 

[dr_mabeuse]

It's not all sunshine and roses. There was another study that showed that women with high levels of estrogen found the scent of men's sweat more appealing than did women with lower levels of estrogen.

They tested them by having them double-blind smell bags containing sweaty tee-shirts worn either by men or women who had worked out for several hours and seeing which ones they preferred.

Personally, I wonder about the bioethics of such an experiment.

 

[Huckleman2000]

[...]
Personally, I wonder about the bioethics of such an experiment.

I share your concerns.
Sometimes psych experiments start to sound like BDSM play on a grand scale.

 

[AllardChardon]

Feeling pretty does have alot to do with self-confidence and I have always had a generous helping of that, thankfully.

But then I was built like those models, so the feedback from most guys was a lovely bulge in the front of their pants and a glazed look in their eyes. That was all the reassurance I needed.

And studies like these do seem silly at times, but the vanity issue has always bugged me, being one of the seven deadly sins, I think. Proud, vain, arrogant, all words to describe me, usually by my detractors, I am glad to say.

I took new pics, with my longer hair style and they are just too big for my avatar. Fucking pixels. I will try again soon, so beware!

 

[JackLuis]

I'll bet this is the basis for the common theme of a woman being moody or bipolar.

One day she feels pretty and the next she's depressed and who knows what could come of a seathing stew of chemicles brewed up in a woman's plumbing?

AC I like the Hat AV. You're cute.

 

[AllardChardon]

Yes, women are like waves, they crest and then crash. This I learned from the book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus". It has helped me deal with my daughter in so many ways. I tell her, we women fluctuate with the moon. We are lunar and we have ups and downs every month. It is the way it is.