Taking the contraceptive pill can lead a woman to choose the “wrong” partner, the findings of a study published today suggest.
The pill is thought to disrupt an instinctive mechanism that brings people with complementary genes and immune systems together.
By passing on a wide-ranging set of immune system genes, they increase their chances of having a healthy child that is not vulnerable to infection.
Couples with different genes are also less likely to experience fertility problems or miscarriages.
Experts believe women are naturally attracted to men with immune system genes that differ their own because of their smell.
(via Cryptogon)
August 13, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Birth control is in itself an interference with mating instincts.
August 14, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I find the “pro-spawning” bias here very interesting. Since the purpose of birth control is to *not* have children, why does it matter if it disrupts that instinct for “biological compatibility”?
What be *more* interesting would be to discover what other soooper seekret criteria women on birth control use to choose partners.
August 14, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I think the obvious problem is when a couple gets together while the woman is on birth control, then they decide they’re ready for kids and the woman stops taking it.