Swallow this

Here’s a nugget I actually wrote down while waiting to get my hair cut, because the magazine, which I can’t remember the name of, was a new one, and I just didn’t feel right about ripping out the article when I knew many other woman would be leafing through its pages while waiting to get their hair cut, and might find it as intriguing as I did.

It turns out that taking oral contraceptives -- currently used by more than 100 million women worldwide according to Wiki -- may diminish a women’s attraction to genetically compatible mates.

Okay, so what?

Well, it turns out, women who ovulate naturally prefer (subconsciously, of course) the scent of a man who has immune system genes that differ from her own, and a pairing of a such a couple is believed to promote fertility, and children with healthy immune systems.

But the pill, the glorious little pill, shifts women’s preferences toward the scent of men whose “MHC genes” are more similar to theirs.

In theory, at least, this could “lead to the breakdown of relationships when women stop using the contraceptive pill, as odor perception plays a significant role in maintaining attraction to partners,” states S Craig Roberts of the Newcastle University in England, who lead the study.

So, just think about this for one little minute, using the pill may actually be one of the causes of both (a) the rise of divorce and (b) the rise of allergies (did you hear that Mr. Peanut?) and other immune system disorders in our children! Who knew?

The solution, of course, is to come up with some non-hormone altering male form of contraception.