Ovulating Women Buy Tight Clothes, Study Shows

Okay, so maybe this isn’t exactly “health news”, but I found this study interesting.  Apparently, when women are ovulating, they tend to buy tighter, sexier clothes.

Actually, there’s a bit more to it than that.  There also has to be the perception of  potential “rival”.

Let me explain.  This study was conducted by the University of Minnesota, and basically consisted of taking 100 women, seperating them into groups according to where they were in their menstrual cycle, and them showing them pictures of attractive women who, they were told, either lived “nearby” or “far away”.

After they viewed those pictures, the women were asked what sort of clothing or other clothing-type accessories they would like to buy.  The results were pretty interesting.

If a woman was ovulating, AND she saw a picture of an attractive women who she thought “lived nearby”, she showed a definite preference for tighter, sexier clothing.  If the woman was not ovulating, or was ovulating but thought the attractive women in the pictures lived “far away” (more than 1000 miles away), there was no effect.

The researchers concluded that ovulating women will try to out-do potential rivals (the women in the pictures “living nearby”).  While it may not seem news that people will try to out-perform the romantic competition in an attempt to win the best mate, it fascinates me that this is strongly influenced by hormonal changes.

It’s just one more example that shows how our endocrine (hormonal) system can influence specific behavior, usually without our knowledge.  But what really blows me away on this is that the effect only takes place if a specific mental trigger is in place.

So it isn’t just hormones.  It isn’t just mental.  It isn’t even the sum of those two parts.  It’s the interaction of higher-order neurology (thinking) with hormones that creates the effect.

This kind of intricacy is why I love studying the human body. More and more, links are being made between the endocrine system and the nervous system.  Usually, you hear about it in regards to the immune system, but this is a wonderful example of how the interaction of these two systems (which used to be thought of as totally seperate) effects other areas of our lives.

And, it’s kind of funny, too, when you think about it.  Just wait until males get their comeuppance in a similar study!

Stay healthy!