# Women want sex more when they are fertile... You don't say! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 10, 2004, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-want-sex-more-when-they-are-fertile-you-dont-say/249636 "2004-06-10T14:10:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-want-sex-more-when-they-are-fertile-you-dont-say/249636/1 "2004-06-10T14:10:57Z")
From this [article](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&e=2&u=/nm/oukoe_health_sex): > [@](#): > > LONDON (Reuters) - Women are likely to have more sex on the days when they are most fertile, even if they are not trying to get pregnant, scientists say. What gets me about this is… Isn’t this just common sense? I mean, people really needed a study to point out that biologically women are more likely to be (and you’ll pardon my indelicacy, I hope) hornier during ovulation, and therefore more likely to have sex? I mean, I’m all for research, but I am not seeing any big revelation here. And this is only one example. I’m constantly reading the results of these studies and thinking… Well, duh! And believe me, it’s not like I think I’m just profoundly smart and way ahead of scientists. I just can’t believe this is anything beyond an obvious biological fact. > [@](#): > > “There apparently are biological factors promoting intercourse during a woman’s six fertile days, whether she wants a baby or not,” said Professor Allen Wilcox, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham, North Carolina. > **But he and his colleagues do not understand the reasons and doubt that women are even aware of them**. Emphasis mine, of course. They do not understand the reasons? I’m truly baffled that scientists could not understand the reason why the physiology of a woman would make her more likely to be horny when she’s actually prime for procreation than when she isn’t. This isn’t a rare thing. There are studies that reveal obese people are more likely to suffer from things like heart disease… Really? People who are obese are generally so from eating a high-fat, high-cholesterol, high-everythingthatisbadforyou diet… Things which have already been proven to be leading factors for heart disease. So it’s a revelation that there’s a link between obesity and heart disease? Honestly, am I missing something? Maybe somehow I’m overlooking the obvious. If anyone knows what I’m not considering… clue me in. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-want-sex-more-when-they-are-fertile-you-dont-say/249636/2 "2004-06-10T14:28:49Z")
I agree with you - it seems really weird that it’s taken this long to confirm something so commonsense. I mean, all primates (and other mammals, for that matter) in estrus are more likely to be horny. Why not human females? Maybe people are still having a problem because they don’t want to equate us with monkeys. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-want-sex-more-when-they-are-fertile-you-dont-say/249636/3 "2004-06-10T14:34:15Z")
IIRC it was “common sense” that excess stomach acid as a result of stress caused ulcers until someone decided to challenge and test that hypothesis, and found most ulcers were caused by a bacterium. Challenging accepted wisdom is never a bad thing to do. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-want-sex-more-when-they-are-fertile-you-dont-say/249636/4 "2004-06-10T14:40:21Z")
> [@astro](#): > > IIRC it was “common sense” that excess stomach acid as a result of stress caused ulcers until someone decided to challenge and test that hypothesis, and found most ulcers were caused by a bacterium. Challenging accepted wisdom is never a bad thing to do. I agree - but these guys aren’t challenging anything… They’re saying, “We honestly can’t figure out why a woman would be more interested in sex when she’s fertile.” Like I said, I’m 100% for research, and even researching things we already “know”. And if the article said that scientists were confirming what was already believed, I wouldn’t be confused. But so many of these studies seem to say “Oh my god! People who drink water are more likely to have water in their mouths before they swallow!” ---
**Author:** ![Optihut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/edb3f5/32.png) [@Optihut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Optihut)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-want-sex-more-when-they-are-fertile-you-dont-say/249636/5 "2004-06-10T14:41:12Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > They do not understand the reasons? > Honestly, am I missing something? Maybe somehow I’m overlooking the obvious. If anyone knows what I’m not considering… clue me in. I think that with “reason” they don’t mean the “logic” behind it, but rather which biological factors (hormonal reaction and such things) would be the cause for it. While “Hey it’s just common sense!” certainly is correct, it doesn’t exactly explain those “reasons” behind it. ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-want-sex-more-when-they-are-fertile-you-dont-say/249636/6 "2004-06-10T14:42:19Z")
“\*\*But he and his colleagues do not understand the reasons and doubt that women are even aware of them. \*\*” Huh…I’m VERY aware of how horny I am when I’m ovulating…do they really thing we’re that unaware of what our own bodies are doing? I just assumed that I’m less horny on birth control because I’m not ovulating, I didn’t know that that wasn’t really considered common knowledge among scientists ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-want-sex-more-when-they-are-fertile-you-dont-say/249636/7 "2004-06-10T16:21:48Z")
Sorry to buck the trend, but back when I had a cycle I was noticably more receptive during my period. In fact, it was frequently a sign that it would start later that day. And I’m pretty sure that the scientists meant (or even said) that they still don’t understand the mechanism by which the arousal occurs. Scientists ask how rather than why, although they’re not always careful to say how, especially when a Journalist is asking why. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-want-sex-more-when-they-are-fertile-you-dont-say/249636/8 "2004-06-10T16:42:08Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Sorry to buck the trend, but back when I had a cycle I was noticably more receptive during my period. In fact, it was frequently a sign that it would start later that day. I actually started a GQ thread 4½ years ago (my how time flies!) about that very phenomenon and quite a few people concurred that they, too, if they were women, were horniest just before and/or during their periods, and if they were men, that this was the case with women they knew, as well. [Why am I so horny…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=10580)