STUDY: Gonorrhea Makes Men Smell Bad

Next time you’re contemplating going home with some trick you just met at a club, give him a little sniff. It could save you from a sexually transmitted disease.

That’s right: a new study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine suggests that gonorrhea makes your sweat smell funkier than usual.

Researchers at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, Russia, collected sweat samples from the armpits of 16 healthy men—13 guys infected with gonorrhea and 5 blokes who had recovered from the illness after medical treatment. The ladies who had the pleasure of smelling these samples overwhelmingly found the infected men to smell “putrid”—worse than the healthy guys.

Scientists theorized that, “perhaps, the immune-dependent reduction of the scent pleasantness in the acute phase of [sexually transmitted illness] is part of an evolutionary mechanism ensuring, unconsciously, avoidance of a risky romantic partner.”

Sixteen guys is hardly a decent survey: We think college health centers should start holding clinics where you can come to smell infected guys and be forewarned.

Unless, of course, someone starts up a”Gonorrhea Pride” movement.

Images via LOLCats, Steweyclaire