Originally published in 2008
At a young age, many women start imagining who their Prince Charming will be: what he’ll look like, what interests he’ll have, if he’ll have a sense of humor and so forth. However, it’s very unlikely that Prince Charming will literally come galloping in on a horse and sweep us off our feet. In fact, ladies, listen up, or chances are fairly good that you could end up with someone who is a complete loser and not your type at all … that is, if you’re on the birth control pill.
As you may have experienced yourself, when you first meet someone, there may be an immediate attraction. In fact, when people speak of “love at first sight,” what they really mean is that they feel an immediate surge of emotion when they meet a person of the opposite sex. A chemical attraction can occur between a male and a female as a result of hormones called pheromones, which are exchanged through the olfactory nerves – that is, our sense of smell. The more a male and female are biologically compatible (able to reproduce with each other), the more likely they will be attracted to each other.1 Couples with different genes are usually more biologically compatible (more likely to have healthy children and less likely to experience infertility and miscarriages).
In August, scientists at the University of Liverpool published a new study showing that the birth control pill can dramatically affect this natural phenomenon.2 The study found that “when the women started taking the pill, their preferences shifted towards the scent of men with more similar genes to their own.”3
What does this mean? It means that there is mounting evidence that the pill can seriously disturb a woman’s healthy, natural tendency to be drawn toward a mate with different immune system genes. This, in turn, can lead to having a genetically similar mate, which increases the risk of infertility and miscarriages. It also means that the pill can change a woman’s love interest so much that she could end up in a relationship with someone to whom she normally wouldn’t be attracted. The study concludes, “If odour plays a significant role in actual human mate choice… our results indicate that use of the contraceptive pill could lead to choice of an otherwise less preferred partner.”
This leads to yet another very serious problem. Since a woman taking the pill is thus more likely to end up with a husband she wouldn’t naturally have chosen, when she decides to go off the pill, she may find she is not attracted to her husband any longer. Craig Roberts, the Liverpool study’s lead researcher, said, “It could ultimately lead to the breakdown of relationships when women stop using the contraceptive pill, as odour perception plays a significant role in maintaining attraction to partners.”
A similar study was conducted in 1995 by a German researcher, Claus Wedekind, at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Lionel Tiger, Ph.D., an author and the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, discussed Wedekind’s research in his book The Decline of Males.4 The women who were not on the birth control pill “preferred the scents of men socially regarded as desirable potential mates… However, women using oral contraceptives reversed their preferences and chose inappropriate partners.”
The growing amount of scientific evidence should be a wake-up call for women who are on the birth control pill. This drug can seriously harm a woman’s system in so many ways. You may have heard of the pill’s possible side effects, such as weight gain and depression. But the pill can also increase a woman’s chances of getting a blood clot or breast cancer. And thanks to pro-life doctors and pro-life organizations such as Pharmacists for Life International and American Life League, many women are finally learning that the pill can kill (visit www.thepillkills.com). It can actually cause early chemical abortions. But if that isn’t enough, the pill can also radically change women’s perceptions about whom they should date and marry.
So, if you’re a woman seeking the man of your dreams, you probably won’t find him if you’re taking the birth control pill. You might find someone to settle down with, but once you go off the pill, the veil of tainted fascination will be lifted and you might realize that the choices you made while on the pill were not in your best interest. In fact, you might actually meet your perfect match, your Prince Charming, but since you are on the pill, you may not even recognize him. Instead, you may well find yourself in one failed relationship after another.
The birth control pill, which burst onto the scene in the 1960s, may represent sexual freedom to some but, in reality, it causes far more problems than the average American realizes. The University of Liverpool study is just the latest evidence of the havoc wreaked by the contraceptive culture.
Marie Hahnenberg is a researcher for American Life League and project manager of The Pill Kills project. (www.thepillkills.com).
References
- Janet E. Smith, “The Social Footprints of Contraception,” Mosaic, Summer 2008, http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/sexuality/se0169.htm (accessed September 4, 2008).
- S. Craig Roberts et al., “MHC-correlated odour preferences in humans and the use of oral contraceptives,” Proceedings of the Royal Society, doi.10.1098/rspb.2008.0825, http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/275/1652/2715.full (accessed September 4, 2008).
- Mark Henderson, “The Pill may put you off smell of your man and ruin your relationship,” The Times, August 13, 2008, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4516566.ece (accessed September 4, 2008).
- Lionel Tiger, The Decline of Males: The First Look at an Unexpected New World for Men and Women (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), 42-43.