Pricey Prophylactic

Sorry evolution, but it looks like uncontrollable hormones and a healthy sexual curiosity just may stop you in your tracks. Referred to by some as a girl's smartest move or man's best friend, "the pill" is a norm in today's liberal society. For girls, it's a small price to pay to avoid the miracle of life at an unwanted time in their lives. For guys, well, you can connect the dots. But as with anything that even remotely has to do with sex, birth control pills have been a very controversial subject since their introduction in the early 1960s.

Opponents to the pill have argued that it's unnatural and unhealthy to put chemicals into your body that change the natural order of normal biological functions. Others have said that it just allows generations to be exposed to sex when they are too young. Others simply say that it promotes sexual promiscuity among the drunk, wild, hormone-driven youths who now don't have to worry about a possible bun in the oven after a one night stand.

A paper released by Trends in Ecology and Evolution reviewing past research suggests that birth control pills may be affecting mate choice among both sexes in a way that can be detrimental to a female's reproductive success.

Studies have found that partner preferences vary significantly according to hormonal fluctuations associated with a woman's menstrual cycle. During ovulation, woman tend to exhibit a preference towards "manly men" -- lumberjacks, ninjas, pirates, etc. They become more attracted to men with burly, masculine facial features, that show dominance, and are competitive. It has also been found that women prefer men who are genetically different from themselves. As for men, studies show that men can detect a woman's fertility status and gravitate towards ovulating women -- it's our sixth sense apparently.

The main problem with the pill is that it interrupts the natural process of menstruation. Basically, birth control pills are synthetic hormones that mimic the way real estrogen and progestin work in a woman's body and prevent ovulation, tricking the body into believing it's pregnant. Therefore, without the fluctuating hormones associated with he menstrual cycle, females and males are prevented from picking suitable mates for the reproductive process.

This becomes a problem because most men and women prefer to date, get to know each other, and maybe even get married before having children these days. If a woman found her partner while on the pill and stays on it until the couple decides to try and have a baby, they may not be an ideal pair for reproductive success.

Firstly, since women are attracted to men who are genetically dissimilar during ovulation and studies have shown that genetic similarity in couples is linked to infertility, the couple could have difficulty in conceiving a child since the pill would have caused the female to choose a more genetically similar male than ideal. And if they do have children, their child could possibly too homozygous due to the decrease in genetic variation, which can lead to decreased perceived health and immune deficiencies.

Furthermore, since pill users would not be ovulating, men are less likely to be attracted to them, cutting a woman's pool of possible mates much smaller. This is compiled by the fact that they would be competing against non-pill using woman for mates, keep in mind that these women still ovulate with the best of them.

Information on the pill has been published in numerous journals and periodicals over the years. I do understand that the menstruation cycle does have an effect over mate choice, but I believe that as humans, we're not controlled significantly by these hormones in the long term. Mate selection for the long term is much different than the animalistic desires relevant to hormone fluctuations; most women don't break up with their boyfriends just because it happens to be that time of the month -- well not solely based on hormonal reasons at least.