A woman's face tends to blush during ovulation.

Recent studies conducted by American scientists have shown an amazing fact: men find women's appearance much more attractive when they are in the period of ovulation, but representatives of the stronger sex cannot explain what changes in a woman's face attract them so much.

An article published in the journal PLoSONE says that this fact is associated with minor changes in the female face during ovulation, which are captured by the male eye only at a certain detection range. That is, it is virtually impossible to see these reddenings with the naked eye.

Study of facial redness during ovulation

The study was conducted as follows: twenty-two women were photographed without makeup at the same time, every day for one month. A special scientific camera was used, modified in such a way that the entire color spectrum is accurately displayed, capable of capturing even slight redness in areas of the skin of the face. Similar equipment is used to study camouflage in the wild. A special computer program was also developed, with the help of which an identical area of ​​the skin of a woman's face was selected and compared in each photograph. In parallel with this, at the time of photographing, each woman was examined hormonal panel. Thanks to this, scientists knew which images were taken on the days when a woman's fertility reached its peak, that is, during the period of ovulation.

Hormones cause reddening of the skin of a woman's face

Scientists have found that the change in skin color of a woman's face varied significantly depending on the phase of the ovulatory cycle, reaching its maximum during ovulation. The reddening of the skin significantly decreased after the period of ovulation, which is directly related to the decrease in the concentration of estrogen in the blood of the subjects, and remained at a low level until the end of menstruation. Studies show that redness of the face reflects the temperature fluctuations of a woman's body during the cycle, directly related to fluctuations in hormone levels during its different phases.

However, when processing the results of the study, it was found that the largest average difference in color fluctuations was 0.6 units. And to detect such a change in color with the naked human eye, a change of at least 2.2 units is required.

Redness of the skin – little piece of a big puzzle

Study participants Dr. Hannah Rowland from the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge and Dr. Robert Barris, a psychologist at the University of Northrumbia, commented on the results: “The female body does not directly advertise that it is in the period of ovulation, but at a certain level gives a signal to the male body that his fertility is now at its peak. We thought that the reddening of the skin of a woman's face could be an external signal for procreation, as occurs in primates. But the results of the study suggest that in the human body, it may be just a small piece of a much larger puzzle.”

As early as the 1970s, scientists believed that involuntary fertility cues, such as facial flushing, could be replaced by artificial cues, such as clothing and cosmetics. Another study has shown that women who are ovulating become more flirty in their behavior, their pupils dilate when they interact with an attractive man.

"We'll need to do more research to find out if the redness of  skin women's face follows the same principle and for the same purpose," says Dr. Barris.

The scientists plan to publish the final result of their research by the end of this year.