>>17328009 Let me guess, before her decision to get a girst child she was always on the pill?
In the 90s, a Swiss study showed that women who are on hormonal birth control, preferred men who are genetically more unfit to their own immune system. Major histocompatibility complex genes are involved in immune response and other functions, and the best mates are those that have different MHC smells than you. The study revealed, that when women are on the pill they prefer men with matching MHC odors. Not only could MHC-similarity in couples lead to fertility problems, but it could ultimately lead to the breakdown of relationships when women stop using the contraceptive pill, as odor perception plays a significant role in maintaining attraction to partners.
Oestrogen is known to nudge women's preferences when it comes to their romantic partners to favour qualities that are associated with masculinity and higher testosterone: square-cut jaws, broad shoulders and brow ridges, for example. But research suggests pill-taking women - in their state of artificial progesterone dominance and lacking a cyclical oestrogen urge - seem to prefer the faces of men who are less masculine. The implication is that if a woman chooses her partner when she's on the pill and then goes off it, it might lead to relationship dissatisfaction because she no longer finds herself as attracted to the person. Being on the pill is associated with an increased risk of being diagnosed with anxiety and depression, though there are some women who report the pill stabilises their moods. The association was particulary high in young women aged 15-19 and their suicide risk is also more than twice that of non-pill takers. A dysregulated stress response is likely part of the picture, but another driver seems to be low levels of the neurosteroid allopregnanolone, a breakdown product of progesterone that acts as a natural sedative.
