Why aren’t women as smelly as men?

Surprisingly, science has shown that women have the potential to smell much worse than men. Compared with men, women’s sweat contains three times the amount of a chemical that causes the most foul body odor. The chemicals in sweat that cause body odor don’t smell bad on their own, but bacteria on our skin break them down into other chemical compounds that reek.

Scientists have identified two main chemicals in sweat that bacteria transform into BO. The names of these compounds are so long and complicated that even scientists refer to them as chemical No. 1 and chemical No. 2. Men’s sweat has the highest concentration of chemical No. 1, which bacteria turn into compounds that have a rank, cheesy aroma.

Women’s sweat has the highest concentration of chemical No. 2, which bacteria break down into a pungent sulfur aroma that’s 100 times stronger than the other type of body odor. The scientists who made this discovery also asked testers to rate the different odors. People rated the odor produced from women’s sweat as much more offensive than odors produced from men’s sweat.

Probably the reason why women typically stink less is that they don’t sweat as much as men do. Scientists have shown that when men exercise, they pour sweat. Women squeeze less sweat out of each pore than men do when exercising, and they start sweating at a higher core body temperature. That means a woman may feel hot and stop what she’s doing before she gets sweaty, whereas a man may be already soaked with sweat by the time he feels hot.

Also, men tend to have more body hair, which traps sweat and helps to diffuse funky aromas, like those aromatic sticks in a bottle that people put out in their bathrooms. Finally — and I’m just spitballing here — it may be that men don’t notice women’s stink as much as women notice ours. It is a fact that women have a keener sense of smell than men.

The good news is that giving off a little bit of man musk could make you more alluring. There are other chemicals in sweat that may act as aromatic signals of a man’s desirability and compatibility as a mate. Androstadienone, a chemical that’s abundant in male sweat, appears to have pheromone-like effects, particularly for heterosexual women. Studies have shown that sniffing it can put women in a good mood and promote sexual arousal.

That’s not to say you should ditch cologne, however. Another study showed that smelling certain “masculine” fragrances heightens sexual arousal in women during the phase of their menstrual cycle before they ovulate. There’s that, and it’s nice to smell nice.

I think the takeaway is that if you catch a whiff of yourself and you don’t like it, take a shower and change your clothes. The rest of the time, don’t worry if you smell like a man.

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