No Baby for You!

So sperm meets egg, implants into the uterus and BLAM, pregnant, right? Not really. Even with all the ways that the body tries to make pregnancy happen, things still go wrong. Back in the 1990s, the United Nations Population Information Network did research on how the intrauterine device (IUD) worked to prevent pregnancy. Women were divided up into two groups, those that used IUDs and those that used no contraception at all. Apparently, the women returned to a lab in California 15 to 30 minutes after having sex to see how the sperm were acting inside of their uterus-es. Live sperm were found in all of the oviducts of the women not using IUDs. A similar experiment was done in Chile, also with some women using IUDs and some not. The scientists waited two to five days after ovulation to flush the uterus to check for fertilized eggs. Of the 36 women that ovulated but didnt use contraception, 8 of them were found to have fertilized eggs (22.22%). Another such study was done in the Dominican Republic, and over half of the flushed eggs were fertilized. (None of the eggs of the women using IUDs were fertilized in the D.R. study and only one was fertilized in the Chilean experiment, in case you were curious.) Sources: Hall, Steven. Discover Magazine, "The Good Egg." Last modified May 29, 2004. Accessed July 19, 2012. http://discovermagazine.com/2004/may/cover/article_view?b_start:int=1&-C= . Keller, Sarah. Family Health International, "IUDs Block Fertilization." Last modified Winter 1996. Accessed July 19, 2012. http://www.un.org/popin/popis/journals/network/network162/blck162.html.

Hips Dont Lie

I talk about sex a lot with one of my female co-workers. Naturally, being of different genders, we have some differing opinions on the subject. She claims that it is nearly impossible for a woman to be top heavy but thin. I agree that it is uncommon but not unnatural. She insisted that curvy, thin women had plastic surgery. Maybe many of them did, but there certainly are naturally voluptuous women with flat bellies. What does it matter if a woman has a curvy body without being overweight? As it seems, it has to do with health and intelligence. Particularly the woman's intelligence, as well as the intelligence of her future children. (This was also talked about in the October 13, 2010 post, "Big Boobs and Bigger IQs.") Women carry a lot of fat in their legs and hips, even thin ones. One third of a woman's entire body weight is in this area. Contrary to popular belief, men from many cultures are attracted to women with fat on their hips and legs. Human women have seven times as much body fat as other animals and human babies have brains that are seven times larger than in other animals. Brains are made up of omega-3 fat called DHA. These fats only come from what people eat but women tend to store these fats in their hips and leg areas. In the later pregnancy months and while nursing women start to lose weight in this area, as it is broken down to be made into breast milk. With each pregnancy, the DHA fat is depleted which could explain why first born children tend to be smarter than later borns. This is why men like women with curvy hips and legs: its a sign that a woman can produce healthy, intelligent offspring and that she is probably more intelligent herself. Studies have shown that women with hour glass figures have more DHA stored in their body fat. There is also research that found that fat found in the lower body can protect against heart disease and diabetes. (See post September 29, 2011 "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty.") Source: Lassek, Will, and Steve Gaulin. "Eternal Curves." Psychology Today, Aug 2012, 73-77.

Source: . http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5912250/Women-getting-more-beautiful-say-scientists.html (accessed July 10, 2012).

http://www.mendeley.com/research/correlation-between-oral-sex-low-incidence-preeclampsia-role-soluble-hla-seminal-fluid/

I Will Survive...Or At Least My Genes Will

To tinker with an old cliche, "When the going gets tough, the tough have sex." Apparently, when the environment changes for the worse, men change their mating strategies to be more promiscuous. When men face situations that have a low survival likelihood, their commitment to monogamy decreases. This was tested by Omri Gillath at the University of Kansas, who asked men to think about their own deaths and then showed them sexual pictures. The men had higher interest in the pictures when thinking about their deaths than they did when Gillath asked them to think about dental pain. "We're biologically wired to reproduce, and the environment tells us the best strategy to use to make sure our genes are passed on," said Gillath. "If you think you might die soon, there's a huge advantage for a man to use short-term mating strategies — to make sure there are a bunch of offspring and hope that some of them survive — but women can't do the same thing. Gillath connected his findings to the current toilet bowl economy, which some economists predict will bring about a long term period of low employment and lower standard of living. He suggests that the worsening living conditions may cause men to cheat more. "When the environment is secure and you have enough food and things are working the way you would like them to, people are more likely to invest in their existing kids and stay with their current partner or prefer long-term mating strategies. But if the environment is dangerous and your chances of survival are low — if there is a famine or more enemies— then people will adopt short-term strategies which allow them to reproduce more." Blogger Opinion: I can see the logic in this but it makes me think of the "Sexual Healing" episode of South Park. At the end of the episode, Kyle and Butters learn that men just like sex a lot and come up with excuses to have affairs. Evolutionary psychology claims that men cheat with younger women because they are more fertile. They cheat during hard times because they need to have more children. Rich men cheat more because they can afford to. At the end of the day, we are really just whores and that is coming from a whore. Source: http://www.science20.com/news_articles/evolutionary_psychology_bad_economy_means_more_sex_men-83588

I AM SO SMART! S-M-R-T!

Hate to break it to Marge but Homer would have cheated on her with Lurleen and the other chicks that have been inexplicably attracted to him over the years. That's what researchers at the London School of Economics and Politics have discovered. Men with lower IQs are more likely to cheat than more intelligent men, they found. As if Homer needed one more reason to hate nerds, his mortal enemies.

Suddenly She Seems Less Attractive...