Reading through various articles in the studies/abstracts section of the forum, and finding a link to PubMed, I decided to look up androstadienone. I found an article called " Changes in the odor quality of androstadienone during exposure-induced sensitization"
which claimed that repeated exposure to androstadienone activated higher level receptors in the VNO and the scent of androstadienone often became unpleasant and putrid even to those who had originally found it tolerable or even pleasant. It also stated that similar findings had been observed with androstenone. Have any of you long term users noticed this? Has androstenone/androstadienone gradually begun to smell terrible or bother your partners more than it used to? I’m really interested in pheromones and the effect they have on the body, not just in a social sense, but in a purely chemical and biological sense, so I plan to read as much on them as I can. Maybe the knowledge will also help me mix pheromones more efficiently or develop effective ones when I can finally buy experimental mixes and pheromones.
I must say I’ve found tolerancy in it’s effects (people used to smell it are much less sensitive to its effects every day I use them) but not in the odor perception.
Anyway we get used to odors, too. It happens to ourselves constantly, my friends doesn’t seem to notice my cologne so much as before, too… that’s another fact, but I find more interesting the phero tolerancy, unfortunately 
I find these types of studies incomplete and misleading:
So are the effects reversible if you take a break for a while?
How much exposure is required to cause these unfortunate side effects?
Yes, they are reversible if you take a break, at least so I have noticed.
The exposure highly depends on many factors but it’s a fact, at least under my experience that this happens. A
nyway it has a big component of getting used to your phero signature, it’s not so surprising for them when they are used to it…
When you find new people, the first reaction to pheros is always really very funny, at least interesting 
. It’s much more effective with new people that with people that are used to it but that doesn’t mean they do not work in every occasion 
Hi, I and colleagues did some research on the effects of repeated exposure to androstenone a while ago (1, 2). I seem to remember that people who previously didn’t smell it became able to smell it. It was like an antibody effect - as if the receptors were being produced in response to the stimulus.
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Van Toller, C., Kirk-Smith, M.D., Wood, N., and Lombard, J. (1980) Electrodermal responses to the olfactory reception of 5- alpha-androstan-3-one. In H. van der Starre (Ed.), Olfaction and Taste VII, London: IRL Ltd.
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Incidentally, I did about the first scientific research on human pheromones way back in 1975 - I sprayed androstenone on a dentist’s waiting room chair and found that women were attracted to the seat and men repelled (1)
My notion was that women would unconsciously be attracted to a main component of male sweat through prior positive association. It was important that the levels used were below awareness as conscious would unpredictable affect response. Hughes et al. (4) had shown that smells could arouse/affect the limbic system without awareness of the smells - it was this crucial finding that got me personal research funding by the UK government to look for evidence of human pheromones in 1973.
My assumption was that this pheromone effect would be weak and the effects of perfume on women’s mood and attitude would be greater than andstorenone - and later research (3) proved this to be the case. I’m not aware of any evidence that androstenone has any greater effect than perfume.
Androstenone is the result of bacterial action on androstanedione - in contrast to androstenone, this steroid has been shown to have very interesting physiological and psychological effects on humans.
1 Kirk-Smith, M.D., and Booth, D.A. (1980) Effect of androstenone on choice of location in others’ presence. In H. van der Starre (Ed.), Olfaction and Taste VII, London: Information Retrieval Ltd).
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Kirk-Smith, M. (1994) Culture and Olfactory Communication “Ethological Roots of Culture”, Ed. Gardner A., Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer Academic Pubs., pp.385-406, 1994. (NATO Advanced Science Institute Series D: Behavioural and Social Sciences, Vol.78)
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Kirk-Smith, M.D. and Booth, D.A. (1990) The Effect of Five Odorants on Mood and the Judgement of others, In Chemical Signals in Vertebrates, pp.48-54, Ed. D.W.MacDonald, D.Muller-Schwartz and S.Natynzcuk, OUP.
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Hughes, J.R., Hendrix, D.E., Wetzel, N., and Johnston, J.W. Jr. Correlations between electrophysiological activity from the human olfactory bulb and the subjective response to odoriferous stimuli. In C. Pfaffmann (Ed.), Olfaction and taste III. New York City: Rockefeller University Press, 1969.
Very interesting… Many of us have already read some of those articles
Ever been to a town where there is a paper/pulp mill? You will smell it miles away. The people who live next to the mill can’t smell a thing even though their sense of smell otherwise works normally. Desensitized people who move away and come back smell the same stench as you and i. It’s a relief to hear that phero effects work the same.
I got to this thread from a search for the word taste. I’m interested in the connection between the olfactory and gustatory senses. And as a result, the effect of pheromones and perfumes on taste and appetite. Smell and taste are the two senses that are directly chemically stimulated. Touch, hearing, vision, all need a vibrational stimulis.
I’ve found several reports of appetite suppression. A couple of reports of taste suppression from direct inhalation of Instant Shine. I have not conducted my own experiments yet. (Are raw pheromones edible?) I’ll need to seperate out the neroli effect. So far there are no reports of taste or appetite enhancement.
I haven’t even started to look at perfumes or essential oils. I have experienced a metallic taste that i think is from a Demeter cologne called Humidor trying to recreate the ozone from the ionizer in a cigar store humidor. The taste lasts long after the scent is gone, leading me to believe that it is probably from the fraction absorbed through the skin.
Therein lies the ‘rub’. Both the sensory perception and attribution are completely subjective. I suspect that even with high caliber technology, somewhere in the chain of proof would still remain at least one subjective link.
There is an interesting report of loss of sweet and salty taste along with possible enhancment of sour, bitter. Unlucky with women in Sweden - #46 by OoohYahhh
OoohYahhh
Interesting ones…
You dont really become desensitized to Androstenone or any other pheromone. You become accustomed.
Think it in these terms, Suppose you never heard a phone ring. The very first time it rings your heart races and you get all excited. “Oh my what is that noise.” You follow the signal to its source and pick it up and talk. Yeah big fun right, (snort) 
Just like with pheromones.
Well after repeated exposure to that ringing phone its not so new and exciting anymore but you still get the signal. You just may not feel like answering it. Just like with pheromones
Suppose the phone doesn’t ring for a long time, when it does that old excitement comes back “Oh someones calling” With pheromones… You take a break from wearing them and it keeps it fresh and exciting.
Or suppose you change the ring tone to play jazz, again its new and exciting. With pheromones… Change the nature of the signal (layering) to keep it fresh and exciting.
Or suppose the phone rings and your accustomed to it so you go and get it but its just like any other signal your accustomed to. When you answer it Ed Mcmann is on the line telling you that you won a million dollars. Now this is once again exciting. …With pheromones, use your charm to make excitement. Dont just slap them on and wait for them to come maul you.
So there is plenty of ways to avoid this but just like anything else we become accustomed to sometimes the excitement ebbs. We have to make that excitement.
Tisha
Very good post and analogy, reps!
I have become accustomed to -none self-effects so as I don’t feel like some sort of caveman wearing it. Which is very important for me and the way I interact with people
But it has turned out just the thing for my aura… suitably buffered of course.
Question…I thought that pheromone detection was theoretically based in the vomeronasal organs and was not based in the regular sense of smell, as the epithielial tissue was different, even though no concrete connection to the brain was discovered in the vno. thoughts?
There are some that suggest that the VNO is “dead” and everything goes through Cranial Nerve 0.
I would have to say, too that this effect would simply have to work the same way on the pheromones your body naturally produces, as well. This isn’t some study done on the effects of pheromone enhancement, just pheromone response in general.
So this means that the pheros your partner was originally attracted to when you met three or four years ago (with no enhancements) may have less of a noticeable effect on them today than it had then.
In a way, I guess we kind of already knew that.
At the same time, I only noticed this thread because I was looking for something on effects I’ve noticed with IFM on my very pregnant girlfriend. Inasmuch as the effects are actually the same…but she smells it a lot less than she used to. Her reaction is about the same, more or less, but she can’t smell the scent anymore. Or at least so I hope or think. It’s only been four days or so.
Phero effect and ability to consciously detect phero odor are not the same, right?
My experience was this: when I first sprayed -none (unscented) I smelled nothing but alcohol. To be more precise, I only had conscious awareness of the alcohol smell. Then, over time, I began to catch conscious odor “glimpses” of a strong .. somewhat mildly repellent .. smell that reminded me of long-unwashed homeless men.
During this time, my phero self-effect did not change.
Nor, apparently, did the pheros effects on others, though I did worry some about giving off “unbathed homeless man” scent.
I was just reading an on-line article about some handsome, successful guy from Chicago who was nicknamed “Stinky” for some odd reason … lol. 
MarkL, you find the smell of long-unwashed homeless men repellent? I love that smell. Weirdo.