Women with higher estrogen levels more likely to shop for mates, UT study finds. Estrogen, it would seem, has a good reason for being called the female sex hormone.

New research from the University of Texas suggests that women with higher levels of estrogen might feel a stronger urge than women with less of it to cheat on their partners, according to a paper published in the Proceedings of The Royal Society of London: Biology Letters.

The study — involving 52 undergraduates whose average age was 19 — found that women who saw themselves as pretty and were judged to be attractive by a panel of two men and seven women also had higher estrogen levels than women deemed less attractive.

“The prettier you are, the more fertile you are,” said lead author Kristina Durante, a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas. And the more fertile, the more options — and urges — for mates, she said.

“In this study we found someone like Angelina Jolie … is more willing to be acquainted with another partner if someone better comes along,” Durante said. “They are not looking for a one-night stand, but they will trade up if it’s for another long-term partner.” That is, unless they are satisfied they have the best partner they can get.

Durante said she was inspired to investigate the link between estrogen, physical attractiveness and mating because of research by UT Professor David Buss and others.

That research shows that men prefer women who are younger, more attractive, and, presumably, more fertile. She wondered whether physical beauty was an outward sign of fertility.

“No study had looked to see if that link was actually valid,” she said.

So, Durante, working with Norman Li, an assistant professor of psychology at UT, measured the estrogen levels of the undergraduates (who were not on birth control pills) twice in a month and asked about the likelihood of flirting, kissing or having a serious affair with another.

The researchers found that the more attractive students had higher estrogen levels and were more willing to consider an affair.

“The women who are most physically attractive, they can afford to hold out for the Brad Pitt types,” she said. “Most of us, we’d be waiting a long time.”

James Roney, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who studies hormones and mate selection and knows Durante, said the article is “probably correct.” But he questioned testing the women during a single month when estrogen could have been higher than normal and the extent to which attractiveness was a factor.

“What I’m not completely convinced of — is there an effect that estrogen promotes infidelity? It may promote a greater desire to evaluate your mate,” he said.

Buss, the UT psychology professor who was not involved with the study, said it “ties the psychology to the underlying biology and increasingly that is what is happening in the field. We’re not only looking at the brain, but the endocrine system.

“This is part of the new wave of important studies. I don’t think it’s the last word on this line on research, but it opens up a lot of interesting questions.”

For one, he said: “Why are these high-estrogen women flirting — and they’re not engaging in casual sex?”

By Mary Ann Roser

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