Fertile women hit a high note
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Agence France-Presse

The closer a woman was to ovulation, the more her pitch was raised, the investigators found.
Credit: iStockphoto


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PARIS: A woman raises the pitch of her voice during her most fertile period of the month in an unconscious boost to her femininity, according to a study published today.

As they report in the British journal Biology Letters a pair of scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) asked 69 women to make voice recordings when they were at high and low fertility points in their menstrual cycle.

Minnie mouse on helium

The closer a woman was to ovulation, the more her pitch was raised, the investigators found.

The increase in tone was only slight – not exactly Minnie Mouse on helium - but the peaks were enough to be picked up by the voice decoder and presumably by the male ear, as well. The difference was the greatest on the two days preceding ovulation, when fertility within the cycle is the highest.

Curiously, this distinction only occurred when, among the sentences she was asked to speak, the volunteer introduced herself: "Hello, I'm a student at UCLA."

The scientists suggest the pitch change happens because men are lured to a more "feminine" voice in a woman - and women respond to the instinct.

Sexual signals and reproductive fitness are strongly associated with voice, which is why women are often drawn to men with the husky voice of the supposed alpha male.