Saturday, October 04, 2008

"Wild thing, I think you move me..."

"It is highly possible that estrogen modulates motion abilities..."
---Karl Grammer of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Urban Ethology


Well, duh Dr. Grammer, just ask an aging postmenopausal woman as she gets out of a chair about the lack of estrogen and the consequent lack of ability to move. Anyway, that was a mini-rant and NOT what this post is about.

In the 'what WILL they study next' dept., we have the following information out of the University of New Mexico. Evolutionary psychologists there were wondering how human females attract mates at the appropriate time of the cycle to generate species-appropriate reproductive behavior. They recruited lap dancers from local clubs to collect data on tips earned as correlated with phase of the menstrual cycle.

Women, as opposed to say a lady chihuahua or chinchilla do not go into heat but rather have a 4-5 day fertile window mid-cycle called the estrous phase when they are highly fertile. The researchers compared tips generated during these ovulatory days compared with those brought in during the luteal phase (post-ovulation time when perhaps a woman might be more inclined to eat her mate rather than mate her mate) or while the dancers were menstruating.

Sixty days, 5300 lap dance incidents later, here's the scoop. Data from 11 women with normal menstrual cycles indicated estrous earnings of about $70 an hour whereas hourly income fell 33% to $50 for those in the luteal phase and plummeted to $35 an hour for those who were menstruating. The seven women on birth control pills earned less throughout the study period.

So there's apparently 'something in the way she moves' during estrous that attracts clients like no other time of the cycle. And no estrous? May as well move on to another profession because she's not moving up in this lap dancing business. All good for the future of pill-free couples, but no wonder that some of my patients lose that loving feeling whilst on birth controll pills.

4 comments:

kenju said...

Maybe it is all connected to pheromones, too. I bet we smell different when we're ovulating.

After a day of sitting on the floor, cleaning out my lower kitchen cabinets, my body KNOWS I have no estrogen! It took me about 5 minutes to get up off the floor, and that was with a very think pillow and a kneeling pad.

Ruth said...

Who dreams up these studies?? Any woman could have given the answer and saved them the trouble of collecting data! ;-)

Cilicious said...

I am no longer ovulating, but there is no doubt in my mind that my spouse responded to "come hither" pheromones when I was still fertile.

Midlife Midwife said...

Ok, this one had me laughing. I will have to pass on this wealth of terribly important medical research to my ladies who work in show biz. I think it was all a ploy for some researcher to get paid to hang out in those places. "Seriously honey, I was doing very important medical research...really!"