Puberty makes teens’ armpits smell like cheese, goat and urine, scientists say
Puberty makes teenagers’ armpits smell like cheese, goat’s cheese and even urine, scientists in Germany have discovered.
The specific chemical compounds that make up puberty body odor have been chosen, should anyone wish to bottle “eau du teenage”.
Even more useful, the discovery could help create deodorants that mask these specific odors. It also explained why babies smell better.
The study compared babies under three years old with 14- to 18-year-olds and found that teenagers had two specific chemical compounds that smell like sweat, urine, musk and sandalwood, which were not present in babies. Babies, on the other hand, had higher levels of a ketone that smells floral and soapy.
Helene Loos, from Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany, and her colleagues fitted T-shirts and baby rompers with cotton pads sewn into the armpits. Children slept in this overnight after washing with fragrance-free products.
The teenagers’ armpits contained two steroids – 5alphandrost-16-en-3-one and 5alphandrost-16-en-3alpha-ol – that smelled of sweat, urine, musk and sandalwood. They also had higher levels of six carboxylic acids, which give off unappealing odors, including cheese, goat cheese and wax.
The infant samples showed higher levels of the ketone alpha-isomethylionone, which smells like flowers and soap, with a hint of violet.
The hormonal changes that occur during puberty are accompanied by an increase in body odor, linked to the activation of sweat glands and the secretion of sebum. The chemical compounds in sweat easily turn into gas, which is then perceived as an odor.
Researchers from the Aroma and Fragrance Research Facility of Erlangen-Nürnberg said that changing body odor during development is known to influence the interaction between parents and children. “Infant body odors are pleasant and rewarding to mothers and as such likely facilitate parental affection,” they wrote.
“Body odors of adolescent children, on the other hand, are rated as less pleasant and parents cannot identify their own child during this stage of development.”
The study used a sample of 36 children, half of whom were babies and half of whom were teenagers. Families were asked not to feed spicy or strong-smelling foods such as onions, asparagus and cabbage that day. They also had to wash their bodies and bedding with perfume-free products.
The researchers extracted the chemical compounds absorbed by the armpit pads using a technique called mass spectrometry to identify them. After the chemicals were taken out and further testing was completed, a trained assessor used their nose to detect odors.