Straight from the "Who Knew?" Department comes a study suggesting that birth control pills can mess up your love life...by messing with your nose!Now, I don't know how legitimate this study is. After all, I'm not a chemist and I've no idea even what an "evolutionary psychologist" is, which is the description this LiveScience.com story gives of the study's lead researcher.
And frankly, I find the argument's reliance on issues of "genetic compatibility," major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, "sexy scents," and how they're all effected by the pill to be most unconvincing. It seems to rest on the presumption that man is nothing more than a chemical mix -- and that's about as silly and unlivable a philosophic presumption as you can have.
But do note this... I am very convinced that there are a lot of serious reasons to avoid the birth control pill and I've commented on that frequently. Some of the most recent examples being this, this, this, this and, most especially, this.
Those are reasons that, unlike this MHC stuff, really do pass the smell test.
