“Heat”
By Dr. Sonia Blasco
Elizabeth, 28, and Coral, 27, are both lawyers. They met at the law firm where they work, and are good friends. Elizabeth is tall and blonde with big, dark eyes and an intense gaze. Coral has long mahogany hair, well-defined lips, and green eyes. Both women are striking and intelligent and like to get out and have fun. Coral is in a serious relationship and plans to be married soon; Elizabeth is unattached.
At a social gathering where I am introduced as “the sexologist of El Nuevo Herald,” they take the opportunity to consult me on a troubling matter that has them stumped. Although they are equally attractive, they find that in certain situations, all the good-looking guys seem to be hitting on Coral, competing openly for her attention.
Maybe it’s because she is especially seductive and attractive at these times. Other times, though, both women fare equally well in attracting men.
“What does Coral have that I don’t?” Elizabeth wants to know.
“Do you take birth control pills?” I ask them. Elizabeth does; Coral doesn’t.
The difference in attraction, I explain, has to do with “heat.” It has been proven that although we aren’t consciously aware of it, a woman gives off signals that she is ovulating.
In most animal species, when a female is “in heat,” that is ovulating, is the only time when she attracts the male and the only moment when she will mate. At this occasion, the hormones are at their peak, and they’re putting out signals.
Animals are guided purely by instinct. And so are we, although we have the freedom to choose—up to a point. That’s why the human female can have sex anytime.
Nevertheless there are different intensities during the cycle, during “heat”—that is, ovulation—sexual desire is powerful. And she’s not the only one who wants more sex—she’s giving off signals that attract men like crazy! Infidelity is more frequent at this time, too.
This attraction shows up, imperceptibly to our conscious awareness, in smells, looks, changes of facial expression and voice, body language, forms of approach, even in the way we dress. And desire is the privileged guest.
According to Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, Arabian women dancers, who get paid by appreciative male spectators fastening money to their clothing, earn the most when they are ovulating.
It has long been proven that there is a power, a subliminal or subconscious allure, exerted by a woman “in heat.” But this attraction happens only under one condition: the woman must have natural cycles—that is, uninfluenced by the hormones present in birth control pills.
The pill is immensely effective in preventing pregnancy, because it cancels ovulation. The level of hormones delivered is constant, and it is interrupted to trigger menstruation. Thus, there is no real menstrual cycle, or rather, the cycle is imitated without ovulation.
We are daily discovering more about our sexuality. And it’s likely that new discoveries will keep coming from the companies that make contraceptives.
Elizabeth looks at me with a silent question. She has been conveniently avoiding pregnancy, but she has just discovered that in the process, that time of intense desire and attraction has vanished.
(Dr. Blasco is a physician, psychoanalyst, and sexologist and the author of Camino al Orgasmo and Menopausia, una etapa vital.)
dsb@doctorasoniablasco.com
