The ovarian cycles of females living and interacting together may synchronise due to pheromones released from axillary secretary glands, the highest concentration of which is produced in the mid-follicular phase, prior to ovulation. The objective of this study was to find evidence for menstrual synchrony in a group of female students living together and to obtain a correlation between the ability to smell the putative pheromone, 5alpha-androst-16-en-3alpha-ol (3alpha-androstenol), found in apocrine secretions and menstrual synchrony. This cross-sectional study involved 88 students who completed a standard questionnaire and whose sense of smell was measured using ten varying thresholds. The menstrual history, friendship scale and menstrual hygiene score was determined for the participants.
The metabolism of varying quantities of pregnenolone has been studied in nuclei-free homogenates from Macaca fascicularis testes by using capillary gas chromatography, after derivatization of metabolites as O-methyl oximes/trimethylsilyl ethers. Evidence was obtained indicating that both pathways for testosterone biosynthesis were operating. 5-Androstene-3 beta, 17 beta-diol was formed in especially high quantities. Two 16-androstenes, namely 5,16-androstadien-3 beta-ol and 5 alpha-androst-16-en-3 beta-ol, were also quantitatively important as metabolites. Co-incubation of stored homogenates with relaxin resulted in 80-100% reduction of the formation of all metabolites quantified except for 5 alpha-androst-16-en-3-one, which was stimulated. Freezing the homogenates at -10 degrees C for 3 weeks resulted in marked 4- to 6-fold reduction in the yields of testosterone and of the 5-ene and 4-ene metabolites from pregnenolone.