Semen & the Smell of Death

Male sperm/semen contains both cadaverine & putrescine, the chemicals responsible for the distinctive smell of decaying flesh in dead humans & animals.  Not only do these chemicals smell repugnant, they have direct effects on our brain & behavior, and not positive ones. 

In experiments, putrescine increased vigilance, triggered faster fleeing from the exposure site & caused "implicit cognitions related to escape & threat."  Duh, you say:  it smells fucking rancid.  But this was when the stench itself was disguised by ammonia or other chemicals.  The hypothesis is that putrescine and its brother cadaverine are literally the "smell of death" and signal the ultimate danger, activating threat responses deep within our mammalian brain that make us massively uncomfortable, hence our drive to escape them (even when we can't consciously perceive them).  This evolutionary response may have kept our ancestors alive by helping them avoid areas in which other humans had been killed violently or died of disease, weather-related disasters or other threats even if they didn't know exactly WHY they felt so uneasy & needed to flee.  

Why then are so many women (and gay men) attracted to a substance that literally reeks of death & warns of our own possible demise?  Beats the hell out of me.  But I'm filing this under "Reason #86399 I'm Glad to Be Lesbian (Today)".  🤢♂🚫