All this time you thought it was sculpted muscles, dazzling smiles and fast cars that were surefire babe magnets. Well have we got news for you. What really drives women wild are naturally occurring body chemicals called pheromones. Actually they work the same way to drive men wild, but the male and female pheromones are chemically different.

The name pheromone comes from two Greek words pheran (to transfer) and horman (to excite). According to Dr. Winnifred Cutler, pheromones are “substances excreted by an animal that affect the reproductive behavior of another same-species animal acting at a distance.” Since 1870 when the French naturalist Jean-Henri Fabre discovered male moths flying from miles away to visit a female moth caged in his lab, scientists have known about and documented the effects of pheromones on mating in insect and animal species. For example male cockroaches go wild when exposed to a glass rod covered with female cockroach pheromones, and attempt to mate with it! A randy boar opens his mouth and puffs out a breath laden with pheromones that freeze a sow in heat, ready for mounting. It wasn’t until 1986, however that Dr. Cutler, director of Pennsylvania’s Athena Intstitute, proved the existence of human pheromones and began to document their effects.

In humans, pheromones are activated at puberty. Both men and women produce varying amounts of “male” pheromones: androstenone and androstenol, only women secrete the “female” pheromone copulins. Produced by the apocrine glands in the armpit and around the genitals pheromones send signals that are picked up by the vemeronasal organ (VNO), just inside the nose. The VNO passes these messages on to the limbic part of the brain which governs the most basic human sensations, like joy, anger, love, hate and sexual arousal.

While we aren’t consciously aware of another person’s pheromones, we can’t “smell” them in the traditional sense, they do have a major impact on us. They ignite the sex drive, increase fertility and help regulate women’s menstrual cycles.

For her early studies Dr. Cutler gathered sweat from the armpits of healthy women and men in their 20s, removed the bacteria and odor and used the extract. Because it’s much too costly to collect and process human pheromones for sale, she and her team have produced laboratory equivalents. Since then controlled studies by Dr. Cutler and other organizations around the world have shown some amazing results.

In a double blind experiment with young women 36 percent of those exposed to pheromones had sex weekly during the first three weeks of the study. Of those receiving a placebo only 11 percent had weekly sex. By the end of the study, 14 weeks, 73 percent of the pheromone users were having sex every week, while those on the placebo stayed at 11 percent. In another of Dr. Cutler’s control groups 38 men were given either a pheromone-alcohol solution to add to their regular cologne or a straight alcohol solution. None knew which they had been given. After 8 weeks of wearing the cologne 47% of the pheromone users reported that they had more sexual intercourse, compared with only 9.5% of those with the placebo. There have been a few unusual tests illustrating the effects of the male pheromone androstenone on women. For one study, a single chair in a dentist's reception area was sprayed with androstenone, all the others were left untouched. It was observed that women most often sat in the chair treated with the pheromone. Another test involved three attached pay telephone booths. Again one of the three phones was sprayed with androstenone and more women used the treated phone than the other two.

The Australian organization, Bennett Research, conducted a survey of 306 men using pheromones. Ninety percent of them claimed that the product had increased their attractiveness to women. Increased response from women was measured by:

• Making conversation – 61%

• Starting up a conversation – 52%

• Expressing an interest in the man – 43%

• Being responsive to him – 40%

• Paying unsolicited compliments – 36%

• Overt flirting – 34%