Researchers at the University of Lethbridge have found that single women experience more sexual fantasies on average during the most fertile part of their menstrual cycles compared to the rest of the month.
"I wanted to study fantasies because they are not constrained by the presence or absence of a partner, so the increase in fantasies and also the increase in how arousing those fantasies were is a reflection of this increased interest in sex mid cycle," the 'Daily Mail' quoted Samantha Dawson, who led the study, as saying.
For their study, the researchers analysed 27 heterosexual women aged between 18 and 30 who were not in a relationship or on hormonal birth control. Each was asked to fill in a daily online diary about their sexual fantasies for one month.
They worked out the 10-day window when each woman was most fertile by counting back from their last periods. During this window the women took a urine test that detected the exact day of ovulation (when an egg is released from one of the ovaries ready to be fertilised).
When analysing the results, they found women reported an average 0.77 fantasies a day. However, during the three days around ovulation this increased to 1.3 per day and the fantasies involved a higher proportion of men.
"Women prefer someone whom they are able to receive genes from -- hence why the number of men in the fantasies increases at ovulation," Dawson said. .
The women were also more likely to focus on the emotional content of their fantasy during their fertile period rather than the visual, which is seen as more of a male characteristic, the study revealed.
Writing in the 'Archives of Sexual Behaviour' journal, Dawson concluded: "Sexual fantasies were significantly more frequent during ovulation than during non-fertile phases.
These results support other research that has suggested that peak fertility coincides with increased sexual desires, arousability, and sexual motivation in women."
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