Heaven scent? How armpit aroma can be a cue for passion

The new research shows how sensitive men are to changes in women's natural body odour. Photo / 123RF

Ladies, you can put away the perfume and seductive lingerie.

For the only signal a man needs to tell if a woman is in the mood for a passionate encounter is to pay attention to their natural smells, a study shows.

Scientists found males are able to detect subtle changes in the armpit aroma of females who are aroused.

And far from being a turn-off, it gets chaps in the mood too.

It is believed to be the first study to confirm men can detect pheromones in sweat when women are sexually excited.

Researchers from Kent University got 24 male students to smell cotton pads put under the armpits of young women without deodorant.

In the first test, the women read an article about knitting and watched a short film about bridge-building.

The men, who had no idea what the other group had been doing, were asked to rate whether they found the scent stimulating or not afterwards.

A week later, the experiment was repeated but the women read erotic passages from 50 Shades of Grey and watched sex scenes from a film.

The results showed men found the odours much more intense and sexually arousing in those that had been reading or viewing erotic material.

Researchers said: "Our findings provide evidence that humans can signal and process the smell of sexual arousal.

"They are among the first to show women's arousal leads to the release of a distinctive scent that increases men's sexual motivation. Men evaluate the sweat of sexually aroused females as more attractive than their non-sexual sweat."

The study was published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour.

Previous studies have suggested women give off a certain aroma at their most fertile time of the month. Others suggest humans can smell chemicals in those gripped by fear.