Which came first -- the fashion or the egg?

Several postings I've read today came to mind as I ran across this article today. What a bizarre bit of research. I'm guessing women were asked to take a picture of themselves each day. That in itself must have made them a little more self-conscious about what to wear. (Plus we are talking about L.A. here. ;))

I have to admit there might be something to it. In my twenties, I used to talk with Pisces about feeling particularly horny when ovulating. She noted the same urge.

The last paragraph is especially bizarre to me. In high school I developed a good guess for what was happening to me each month. How hard can it be to read a book that describes the physical signs of ovulation? It could be that all the artificial ingredients (preservatives, sweeteners, fillers, growth hormones in meat, etc.) we consume mess up our bodies' natural indicators. It's also because women are waiting longer to have children. Those natural indicators may not be as obvious at an age when human biology expects women to be raising children not having them. (I'm not trying to start an argument here, just state scientific fact.)

Of course, now that I'm aware of this research, I'll be watching to see what I wear next month.

CNN.com - Which came first -- the fashion or the egg? - Oct 10, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Women dress to impress when they are at their most fertile, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday in a study they say shows that signs of human ovulation may not be as mysterious as some scientists believe.

A study of young college women showed they frequently wore more fashionable or flashier clothing and jewelry when they were ovulating, as assessed by a panel of men and women looking at their photographs.

'They tend to put on skirts instead of pants, show more skin and generally dress more fashionably,' said Martie Haselton, a communication studies and psychology expert at the University of California Los Angeles who led the study.

Writing in the journal Hormones and Behavior, Haselton and colleagues said their findings disproved the conventional wisdom that women are unique among animals in concealing, even from themselves, when they are most fertile.

Some animals release powerful scents when ready to mate, while others display skin color changes, but human ovulation is notoriously difficult to detect. This is attested to by the frequency of unintended pregnancy, as well as test kits marketed to women wishing to become pregnant but unaware of the likeliest time to conceive.