Posted on 11/01/2002 5:42:36 AM PST by shrinkermd
Women with steady partners may still be tempted to sleep around - but mainly on certain days of the month, say researchers.
A BBC documentary to be broadcast on Wednesday explains how human sexual instincts are so strong that some women's preferences may alter significantly while they are ovulating.
While her partner might be a better bet to bring up children and support her, another man might carry genes which mean healthier, stronger children.
Morgan Wise, a train driver from Big Spring in Texas, found this out when his youngest son was found to have cystic fibrosis, a devastating lung disorder caused by a single faulty gene.
Morgan Wise found he had fathered none of his sons
Both mother and father must carry the gene to produce a cystic fibrosis child, and Morgan duly went for a gene test to confirm he was a carrier.
The test proved negative - effectively proving that he was not the child's father.
He told the BBC: "The doctor said: 'You are not a carrier of cystic fibrosis.' I couldn't believe it."
There was worse to come. Subsequent DNA tests revealed that not one of Morgan's three sons was fathered by him.
One in 10
However, researchers suggest that this is by no means an isolated event.
One study suggested that one in 10 children are being raised by men who are unaware that they are not the father.
A more "masculine" face - better during fertile period
A study at the University of Stirling seems to pinpoint the instinct which might tempt some women to stray around the time of the month they are fertile.
Two groups of female volunteers were picked.
One was tested during their ovulation, the other at another point in her cycle.
Each was shown a computer image of a male face which they could adjust electronically to make appear more or less masculine, using features such as the thickness of the neck and the squareness of the jaw.
While the group not ovulating tended to prefer their men with slightly more feminine feature, at the point of ovulating, the women strongly preferred their men masculine.
This, say scientists, is down to instinct - while more feminine features might signify a man with less testosterone who is more likely to prove a steady partner, the stronger features they preferred at ovulation might indicate a better set of genes, producing a stronger or healthier child.
This helps explain certain feminists groups attraction to Janet Reno.
That's quite a leap. I suggest that you stay out of tall buildings.
I can hardly believe that. Sounds like so much more Barbra Streisand.
Also sounds like another peer-review avoidance, run stright to the media play.
Then the example how the woman picked a father with cystic fibrosis.
?
That does seem rather unbelieveable, doesn't it? However, this is not a figure plucked out of thin air -- there was an actual study done in the UK and America in which children's paternity was DNA tested and comparable figures (~ 10%) were found. And, it was not done to support some lame academic thesis, but in actual fact, shocked and stunned the investigators. I've forgotten where I read about it, but I think it was in the book Sperm Wars by Robin Baker.
Recessive traits persist in the gene pool because carrier status confers a survival advantage. Carriers of sickle cell anemia are more resistant to malaria than non-carriers. Carriers of Tay-Sachs more resistant to tuberculosis and carriers of cystic fibrosis more resistant to typhoid.
I am powerless in the face of my genes. I am Pavlov's dog and Darwin's moth.... my destiny is already written and all I can do is hold onto the gunwales and shoot through life's rapids.
Choice holds no power for me; it is a mirage, a cosmic joke, a pitiful delusion.
I am not a rock, I am a chemical puppet.
Such garbage.
LOL!
Any single man like myself who has had the experience of being propositioned by married women knows this to be true. Though Chris Rock said it about men, it is true that both men and women are as faithful as their options.
Now, this might not be the case among Conservative Freepers, but in the world at large, women are sleeping around as much as men are, if not more.
As a larger percentage men in American society become feminized slaves to women with agendas, rather then true leaders, I expect it will only get worse.
Who in their right mind would get married today? LOL
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