The female menstrual cycle does not influence testosterone concentrations in male partners.
BACKGROUND
The time of ovulation has since long been believed to be concealed to male heterosexual partners. Recent studies have, however, called for revision of this notion. For example, male testosterone concentrations have been shown to increase in response to olfactory ovulation cues, which could be biologically relevant by increasing sexual drive and aggressiveness. However, this phenomenon has not previously been investigated in real-life human settings. We therefore thought it of interest to test the hypothesis that males' salivary testosterone concentrations are influenced by phases of their female partners' menstrual cycle; expecting a testosterone peak at ovulation.


METHODS
Thirty young, healthy, heterosexual couples were recruited. During the course of 30-40 days, the women registered menses and ovulation, while the men registered sexual activity, physical exercise, alcohol intake and illness (confounders), and obtained daily saliva samples for testosterone measurements. All data, including the registered confounders, were subjected to multiple regression analysis.


RESULTS
In contrast to the hypothesis, the ovulation did not affect the testosterone levels, and the resulting testosterone profile during the menstrual cycle was on the average flat. The specific main hypothesis, that male testosterone levels on the day of ovulation would be higher than day 4 of the cycle, was clearly contradicted by a type II error(β)-analysis (< 14.3% difference in normalized testosterone concentration; β = 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Even though an ovulation-related salivary testosterone peak was observed in individual cases, no significant effect was found on a group level.
Clinical Chemistry, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. jakob.strom@liu.se
Jakob O
JO
Strom
Edvin
E
Ingberg
Emma
E
Druvefors
Annette
A
Theodorsson
Elvar
E
Theodorsson
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010060:Ovulation / Q000502:physiology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012747:Sexual Partners; D013739:Testosterone / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
D013739:Testosterone