Researchers suggest that women's ability to smell better is due to the boding of the hormone, estrogen.A US study shows that women who are of procreative age are far better in sensing the fragrance than men do.
Tim Jacobs, Professor of Physiology at Cardiff University, said: "Some studies have shown that during ovulation, there's a surge of oestrogen which increases sensitivity. The structure of the nose is the same in women as men. Theories have also shown smells activate a greater region in the brain in women than men.""A new study showed that although sex differences in olfactory superiority are not found in middle age and beyond (50-87 years), personality and semantic memory were found to be better predictors of odour identification, even when sex, age and education were taken into account."
The tests were originally carried out on six subjects. They used benzaldehyde again and a second substance, isoamyl acetate, which smells like bananas. Sensitivity to benzaldehyde increased substantially for both the experienced women group, but not for men.
