Breast-feeding: sexier than you think?

If you're having trouble arousing the lady in your life, science has come up with yet another simple solution. Just wave the T shirt of a breast-feeding mother under her nose and she'll be all over you. (The only problem you'll have is explaining where you got the T shirt from.)

Yes, according to research from the University of Chicago, the smell of breast-feeding women has an aphrodisiac effect on other women.

In a study that appears to have been designed to ensure that it is recounted in graphical detail in the lads mags, women wiped pads soaked in the sweat of nursing mothers across their lips every morning and were asked to complete a daily sexual desire questionnaire. Compared to the control group (who wiped clean pads across their lips), the women exposed to the smell of breast-feeding experienced a 24% increase in sexual desire if in a relationship and a 17% increase if single.

Professor Martha McClintock who led the research said: 'We knew there are other species in which the females use social signals from other females to help identify the time when they become pregnant and have offspring at optimal times. We wanted to find out if that was the case in humans.

'In previous work we showed an increase in sexual desire during the three to four days before ovulation. In this study we found that being exposed to these chemicals sustained sexual desire during times in the cycle when it would normally be lower than peak.'

The hope is that this effect could be harnessed to increase sexual desire in women with low libidos. 'This could be used for the treatment of disorders of desire. A lot of basic research would need to be done to identify the specific compounds involved,' said Professor McClintock.

Another reason why breast is better than bottle?