Skip the Showers: Male Sweat Turns Women on, Study Says

Men who are gym buffs may want to skip the showers after their next work out.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley said women were sexually aroused, had faster heart beats and had increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol after smelling the chemical found in male sweat, Daily Science reported Thursday.

This study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, is the first to indicate a direct link between the peoples' smell influencing hormones of the opposite sex, researchers told Daily Science, just like rats, moths and butterflies.

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"This is the first time anyone has demonstrated that a change in women's hormonal levels is induced by sniffing an identified compound of male sweat," as opposed to applying a chemical to the upper lip, said study leader Claire Wyart, a post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, to Daily Science.

A previous study done by Noam Sobel, director of the Berkeley Olfactory Research Program, found that an element of male sweat -- androstadienone, which is also added to perfumes and colognes -- affected mood, sexual arousal, physiology arousal and brain activation in women.