What Are Pheromones?

What are pheromones?

As taken from Wikipedia, A pheromone is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. The Greek meaning of phero is “to bear” and the meaning for hormone is “impetus”.

1953 marks the year that the earliest known pheromone was discovered. This first pheromone, which was identified in the female moth was called bombykol. It sent an attraction signal to male moths that was very effective even at lower amounts and long distances.

While most conclusive studies on this topic have been done with insects, there are suggestions that pheromones may play a part in human communication as well. Typically one equates pheromone secretion with sexual attraction and attraction to the opposite sex in general. Pheromones are natural scents and they typically play a huge part in this sexual attraction between opposite sexes within a certain species.

In the early 70’s the first sex pheromone in humans was discovered after it was noted that women living in close proximity tended to adapt with their menstrual and ovulation cycles. This earliest pheromone detection was alpha-androstenol.

Many studies have been conducted on the male human pheromone Androstenone which has been shown to attract women to the men giving off this particular scent or chemical. Today, after many years of evolution, men secrete Androstenone when they sweat so it is not something that women will normally come into contact with due to our obsession with trying to limit body odor with antiperspirants and deodorants.

Many men purchase colognes that have been created that carry a part of Androstenone within the scent specifically to attract women to them. This tends to emit signals of aggression and dominance. There are also products that carry parts of other well-known pheromones such as Androstenol which can signal sociable behaviors and Androsterone which can tend to signal protection and reliability.

There are definitely some products on the market today that people swear by. You should do your research and give them a try yourself to see if this is something that can have a positive effect on your social life.