THE LOVE MATCH PATCH – December 8^th 2005

 

It’s the Holy Grail for women (and men)… a patch that claims it can improve the female libido. So does it work?

 

When you fall in love, it can be like an addiction, say scientists, because the chemical dopamine triggers a ‘high’. Scentuelle, an aromatic patch worn on the wrist, is said to mimic the effects of dopamine by releasing a scent which promotes the production of the hormone in a woman’s body. But does it work? Tess Stimson, 36,a novelist and Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Florida, llives with her partner  and three children aged 10, 7 and 2. She says:

 

hildren, work, tiredness, a new episode of Lost – there are so many reasons why a woman’s get-up-and-go may have already got-up-and-gone when her partner makes bedroom eyes.

 

Scentuelle patches promise to have as similar effect on a girl’s libido as something sparkly in a Tiffany’s box, and for a fraction of the price.

 

I’m pleasantly surprised when I open the rather twee flowery packet. I’d been envisaging a large brown bandage; but these are small – not much bigger than your thumbnail – and transparent.

 

For maximum effect, I read, I should wear a patch all the time and replace it every day.

 

I stick the patch on the inside of my right wrist, and sniff. The fragrance is faint – the instructions warn me not to wear scent, which interferes with the patches – but pleasant. For the next six hours, I sniff it frequently.

 

As far as I can tell, it’s not having any effect – the postman manages to deliver the mail unmolested.

 

By bedtime, I’m feeling frisky. Whether this is because I’ve been thinking about sex all day or because of the patches, I can’t tell. Either way my ever-willing scientific partner gets lucky.

 

What isunusual is that later that night, I have the most erotic dreams of my life. There’s a blip on night three, when bizarrely I dream about Wellington boots –perhaps I’m developing a rubber fetish – but otherwise, the saucy dreams continue.

 

And there’s no denying that during the day I have sex on the mind more often than usual. (After a fortnight, my partner hides the patches, just for a rest.)

 

My only reservation is the strange tic I’ve developed, sniffing my wrist every five minutes. I realise it’s becoming a habit when my two-year-old daughter toddles off to the bathroom and returns with a box of tissues ‘for Mummy’s poor nose.’

 

I can’t help thinking the effect is psychological rather than physical – but as the Scentuelle booklet itself notes, creating a sexy atmosphere is often enough to make you feel sexy. And the dreams really are something else.