Women stay away from their dads during ovulation?

If you believe a new study, women have a tendency to stay away from their fathers during their most fertile days. Researchers who tracked women's cell phone records found that the participants were extremely unlikely to call their dads while they were ovulating, and if their dads initiated contact, women hung up very quickly. Interesting, no?

Research team member Martie Haselton said: "Women call their dads less frequently on these high-fertility days and they hang up with them sooner if their dads initiate a call." They made this conclusion after following 48 women and their cell phone communications. Of course, we don't have to point out that 48 is a very small number and that such a study could hardly been seen as conclusive by anyone, but the theory behind these researchers' findings is fascinating nonetheless.

University of Miami assistant professor of psychology Debra Lieberman, who led the study, shared her thoughts on the team's discovery: "Evolutionary biologists have found that females in other species avoid social interactions with male kin during periods of high fertility. The behaviour has long been explained as a means of avoiding inbreeding and the negative consequences associated with it." The women who participated in the study were not only more likely to avoid their fathers while they were ovulating; they were much more likely than usual to seek out their mothers and have lengthy telephone conversations with them.

Now, we get that mothers do not pose much of a threat to women when it comes to inbreeding, but long talks with mom could certainly keep us from doing what we are supposed to be doing during ovulation if we ever want to get pregnant! So, this bit is a bit of a mystery. Let's hope there will be more research on this topic in the future. And meanwhile, if you're interested in other ovulation-related things we have written about before, see our article about how long does ovulation last, and using ovulation tests to get pregnant.