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Percept."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Women\u2019s olfactory perception varies across the menstrual cycle. The influence of oral contraceptives on this variability remains unclear.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>To further estimate this, we assessed discrimination performance for both body odors and ordinary odorants in 36 women, 18 naturally ovulating, and 18 using oral contraceptives. Each participant was tested once a week over the course of a month, and data was then parsed into menstrual phases.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>In naturally ovulating women, at the transition from follicular to luteal phases, there was a decline of 19% (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.003) in olfactory discrimination of body odors but not ordinary odorants. In turn, in women using oral contraceptives, only at a later time of the month, at a point corresponding to the late luteal phase and shift from post-ovulation to pre-menstruation, was there a decline of 20% (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.002) in olfactory discrimination performance. Moreover, when we reorganized the data from women using oral contraceptives in order to separately assess the contraceptive withdrawal period (the few days off pills), we observed a 23% reduction (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.01) in discrimination accuracy of body odors but not ordinary odorants during this time alone.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Women have reduced ability to discriminate body odors during the withdrawal period of oral contraception.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>If women indeed consider men\u2019s body odor in their mate selections, then the oral contraception withdrawal period may not be the best time to make such decisions.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1007\/s12078-019-09273-9","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,6]],"date-time":"2019-12-06T02:02:31Z","timestamp":1575597751000},"page":"123-131","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Women Have Reduced Ability to Discriminate Body Odors During the Withdrawal Period of Oral Contraception"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Yaara","family":"Endevelt\u2013Shapira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Liron","family":"Pinchover","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ofer","family":"Perl","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ella","family":"Bar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ayelet","family":"Avin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3232-9391","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Noam","family":"Sobel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"9273_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Baerwald A, Olatunbosun O, Pierson R (2004) Ovarian follicular development is initiated during the hormone-free interval of oral contraceptive use Contraception 70:371-377","DOI":"10.1016\/j.contraception.2004.05.006"},{"key":"9273_CR2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cameron EL (2014) Pregnancy and olfaction: a review Frontiers in psychology 5:67","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2014.00067"},{"key":"9273_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2288","DOI":"10.1093\/humrep\/16.11.2288","volume":"16","author":"S Caruso","year":"2001","unstructured":"Caruso S, Grillo C, Agnello C, Maiolino L, Intelisano G, Serra A (2001) A prospective study evidencing rhinomanometric and olfactometric outcomes in women taking oral contraceptives. 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