man stink

[long.897]

Well the thing is, from an evolutionary standpoint the woman wants two different kinds of men.  To father her children, the woman wants the prolific and strong man whose genes will help her child be as evolutionarily fit as possible.  Once she's pregnant, the prolific guy isn't such a good bet; he'll be dividing his attention between too many mewling cabbages, if he's even involved at all.  At this point the woman is best suited to find a dependable and monogamous man who'll care for and help protect her children.

As for smells...I'm not on HRT (yet!  Soon please!) but I do notice smells a fair amount.  There are very few guys who have smelled absolutely horrible to me, but by interesting circumstance, all the ones who have that I've gotten to know have been gay.  I definitely notice a wide range of smells in women, and scent has absolutely been an important factor in attraction for me. 

[Cowboi]

As for smells...I'm not on HRT (yet!  Soon please!) but I do notice smells a fair amount.  There are very few guys who have smelled absolutely horrible to me, but by interesting circumstance, all the ones who have that I've gotten to know have been gay.  I definitely notice a wide range of smells in women, and scent has absolutely been an important factor in attraction for me.

I've recently been discussing this with a woman I am friends with, she is a lesbian and works in an office with another lesbian and a bisexual woman. Her and the other lesbian both swear up and down that the bisexual woman smells amazing. They can smell her two floors down if their office door is open! They actually proved this to each other one day by following the smell and it did in fact lead to her despite her not being in her office or even in a portion of the building she is normally in.

I'm curious how much stronger your sense of smell will get. If you don't mind answering are you sexually attracted to men or women? I'm mostly wondering because if you are attracted to men but the men you've felt smelled bad were gay then is your body already in a way searching for a heterosexual male? That would be really interesting and lead to a whole new issue in this thread lol.

Does anyone else have experiences that might fit into what I'm asking about? Before HRT did you find your sense of smell pointing you towards people who may be attracted to you had you already been physically female/male?

[valyn_faer]

One thing I've noticed (I'm still pre-HRT) is that my sense of smell is less acute here in Oregon. I moved from Arizona and I feel like I could smell things better in Arizona. Perhaps part of it has to do with climate? I feel like smells carried better in a dry, arid climate. There are also a lot more flowers and various scent emitting plants here, which I'm not used to. This could just be drowning out other scents. This town is also known for causing bad allergies and I've been taking Claritin everyday. This could be a factor as well.

[Janet_Girl]

One thing I've noticed (I'm still pre-HRT) is that my sense of smell is less acute here in Oregon. I moved from Arizona and I feel like I could smell things better in Arizona. Perhaps part of it has to do with climate? I feel like smells carried better in a dry, arid climate. There are also a lot more flowers and various scent emitting plants here, which I'm not used to. This could just be drowning out other scents. This town is also known for causing bad allergies and I've been taking Claritin everyday. This could be a factor as well.

Coming from a dry climate to a moist one would cause allergies.  We have a lot of different pollens in the air here.  And Clartin is a big seller.

[long.897]

I've recently been discussing this with a woman I am friends with, she is a lesbian and works in an office with another lesbian and a bisexual woman. Her and the other lesbian both swear up and down that the bisexual woman smells amazing. They can smell her two floors down if their office door is open! They actually proved this to each other one day by following the smell and it did in fact lead to her despite her not being in her office or even in a portion of the building she is normally in.

I'm curious how much stronger your sense of smell will get. If you don't mind answering are you sexually attracted to men or women? I'm mostly wondering because if you are attracted to men but the men you've felt smelled bad were gay then is your body already in a way searching for a heterosexual male? That would be really interesting and lead to a whole new issue in this thread lol.

Does anyone else have experiences that might fit into what I'm asking about? Before HRT did you find your sense of smell pointing you towards people who may be attracted to you had you already been physically female/male?

I don't mind answering at all.  When it comes to my sexuality, I'm not sure what to call myself; I'm not "confused" in the general sense of the word, but I really don't know if a label exists for my feelings. 

I'm currently living as male (with an intersex disorder,) and there's no question that I'm attracted to women.  Fantasies involve women, my only real relationship was with a woman, I love how some women smell...etc.  No interest in being a penetrative partner though, when I fantasize about a woman (keeping it pg-13) that just doesn't factor into it.

When it comes to men, I'm kind of on the fence.  I can fantasize about men, and enjoy doing so, and can take "enjoyment" in watching heterosexual porn and imagining myself as the woman doing whatever it is that she might be doing with the man.  I like their genitals etc.  I do NOT like body hair, but that's probably personal preference.  In person though, I've never really felt that surge of attraction that you sometimes get talking to a man.  There's never any real chemistry, and I've never had a crush or an infatuation with a guy.  I can fantasize about being active with a guy, but that attraction just never exists in person.

I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I kind of think that once I'm on hormones, the attraction will grow and I'll be more interested in guys in person; I'm thinking that maybe since I don't want to be a gay guy, being all male hormoney just means no chemistry with guys. 


EDIT: un "wall of text"ed it

[ggina]

Once she's pregnant, the prolific guy isn't such a good bet

Does this mean that if I can't get pregnant, I'll forever want the profilic and strong men and them only? After being for a few months on E I recently started to notice a few guys like that at my workplace. Not sure about their smell though but will try to find that out What I'm sure at the moment is that my heart pounds faster when they're around... Jeez, I'm not even in girl mode yet, what will happen then???

g

[Cowboi]

Coming from a dry climate to a moist one would cause allergies.  We have a lot of different pollens in the air here.  And Clartin is a big seller.

OMG yes! Claritin is my new best friend.


Let us know how the smell tests go gina... we should be studied lol.

[long.897]

Does this mean that if I can't get pregnant, I'll forever want the profilic and strong men and them only? After being for a few months on E I recently started to notice a few guys like that at my workplace. Not sure about their smell though but will try to find that out What I'm sure at the moment is that my heart pounds faster when they're around... Jeez, I'm not even in girl mode yet, what will happen then???

g

Well I'm a bio student so I know a bit about this, but I'm not like a PhD researcher, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt.  I know that I read an article about how women on the pill tend to like different guys because their bodies make that switch, so maybe medical science can (or could one day) administer hormones that would imitate pregnancy, and change your "tastes" so to speak. 

Desires also change with age, probably because age changes hormone levels.  Older women (from an evolutionary standpoint 40 is old, sorry ladies) tend to like that caregiver more as well because based on our evolutionary history, if they were going to reproduce they probably already would have done so, and would certainly be more interested in a guy who cares for kids, rather than just creating them.

[Arch]

I was on the pill for the longest time when I met my ex. He smelled fabulous to me; that's how I knew he was the right one. When I went off the pill, he still smelled fabulous. Even when I went on HRT, he smelled wonderful. Other men's body scents completely turn me off.

I don't know what all of this means, but I suspect that it doesn't bode well for my future relationship prospects.

[valyn_faer]

I personally think human beings are far more social than instinctual to the point that our social nature often overrides our biological nature. However, I'm a sociology major so that's probably just my bias speaking. =P

[ggina]

Let us know how the smell tests go gina... we should be studied lol.

absolutely, Cowboi! I'll update as soon as I have some interesting findings

if they were going to reproduce they probably already would have done so, and would certainly be more interested in a guy who cares for kids, rather than just creating them.

So this means that if I'm over 40 (not yet but getting nearer, dammit ) and I biologically cannot give birth then I should be looking for a father type of guy? I know that's who I need because I want to adopt children someday.

But then why I'm eyeing the alpha males then??? ehh... *twinkles confusedly*

life is good

g

[long.897]

Well technically age is irrelevant, it's whatever age your hormone levels correspond to in a cisgendered woman.  It's not a hard and fast rule either; there's a lot of variation, and there's a lot of ability to tailor our choices beyond that which another species of primate can.  GENERALLY though, women want fertile and successful men to father their children, because their children will inherit the genes that made those men fertile and successful.  Once she has the children though, and isn't looking to reproduce again, the woman wants a partner who will care for her kids, to ensure the greatest chance of their reaching reproductive age.   It's all hormones though; there isn't some switch in the brain that goes off on your 35th birthday that starts a machine telling you "hey, you should settle down now."