Smells like good sex: olfactory function is associated with sexual well-being among fertile women

Objectives Olfactory function is involved in many aspects of our life, such as pathogen threat detection. Body odors appear to play a role in sexual behaviors and mate choice. Previous studies have shown that olfaction is also involved in the bonding of a romantic relationship. Methods In the present preliminary study, we explored the relationship between olfactory function and sexual well-being among women. To this purpose, forty-six women (mean age = 26.2, SD = 5.5, min = 19, max = 45) participated in a study where their olfactory function was measured through the Sniffin’ Sticks test (SST), whereas sexual well-being was measured through the Female Sexual Functioning Index (FSFI) questionnaire. After computing the average score for each subscale of the FSFI, we conducted a multilevel linear model analysis on each mean rating, with the subscale and the SST total score (TDI) as predictors. To take the dependence of the observations within participants into account, we modeled the random intercept with participants’ IDs as clustering factors. Participants’ age was added predictor to control for this possible confound. We adopted a Bayes Factor approach because its interpretation is not conditional on prior sampling intentions. Results We found moderate evidence of a positive effect of Age (BF10 = 3.5). In fact, the older the participants were, the greater sexual well-being they reported. Importantly, we also found moderate evidence in favor of a positive effect of TDI (BF10 = 9.67), namely higher levels of olfactory function are associated with greater levels of sexual well-being. Conclusions In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that olfactory function is positively correlated to sexual well-being in women. We found preliminary empirical support to this hypothesis, as higher levels of olfactory function as tested by the SST were positively correlated with sexual well-being regardless of the specific subscale of the FSFI. Conflicts of Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.