Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 Jan 22;273(1583):135-40.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3296.

Facial appearance is a cue to oestrogen levels in women

M J Law Smith  1 , D I Perrett, B C Jones, R E Cornwell, F R Moore, D R Feinberg, L G Boothroyd, S J Durrani, M R Stirrat, S Whiten, R M Pitman, S G Hillier
Affiliations

Facial appearance is a cue to oestrogen levels in women

M J Law Smith et al. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Although many accounts of facial attractiveness propose that femininity in women's faces indicates high levels of oestrogen, there is little empirical evidence in support of this assumption. Here, we used assays for urinary metabolites of oestrogen (oestrone-3-glucuronide, E1G) and progesterone (pregnanediol-3-glucuronide, P3G) to investigate the relationship between circulating gonadal hormones and ratings of the femininity, attractiveness and apparent health of women's faces. Positive correlations were observed between late follicular oestrogen and ratings of femininity, attractiveness and health. Positive correlations of luteal progesterone and health and attractiveness ratings were marginally significant. Ratings of facial attributions did not relate to hormone levels for women wearing make-up when photographed. There was no effect of sex of rater on the relationships between oestrogen and ratings of facial appearance. These findings demonstrate that female facial appearance holds detectable cues to reproductive health that are considered attractive by other people.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Composite faces of the (a) 10 women with highest and (b) 10 with lowest levels of late follicular oestrogen metabolite (oestrone-3-glucuronide, E1G).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abitbol J, Abitbol P, Abitbol B. Sex hormones and the female voice. J. Voice. 1999;13:424–446. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baird D.D, Wilcox A.J, Weinberg C.R, Kamel F, McConnaughey D.R, Musey P.I, Collins D.C. Preimplantation hormonal differences between the conception and nonconception menstrual cycles of 32 normal women. Hum. Reprod. 1997;12:2607–2613. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baird D, Weinberg C.R, Zhou H, Kamel F, McConnaughey D.R, Kesner J.S, Wilcox A.J. Preimplantation urinary hormone profiles and the probability of conception in healthy women. Fertil. Steril. 1999;71:40–49. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Benson P.J, Perrett D.I. Extracting prototypical facial images from exemplars. Perception. 1993;22:257–262. - PubMed
    1. Chaffkin L.M, Luciano A.A, Peluso J.J. The role of progesterone in regulating human granulosa cell proliferation and differentiation in vitro. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 1993;76:696–700. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types