Explaining the male mind: turns out, the reason your guy behaves in ways that are so mysterious to you is because what happens in his noggin is very different from what goes down in yours. Trust us, the explanations you're about to hear will bring a whole new level of understanding to your relationship.

In many ways, the sexes have grown more "alike over time. Women pump iron; men help pick out china patterns. Women join the military; men get manicures. Even our minds are 99 percent identical, according to scientists. But that curious 1 percent is responsible for the big-time differences that we all know exist between the male and female genders.

Some of those disparities are the sources of minor frustrations; others, major sparks. "Men and women have very contrary ways of communicating and expressing love," says Mona Lisa Schulz, MD, PhD, author of The New Feminine Brain. "By accepting our differences and making an effort to speak each other's language, we should be able to get along better while still keeping things hot."

In other words, simply figuring out where he's coming from can prevent misunderstandings and fights. With the goal of awareness (and maybe empathizing) in mind, we asked experts to explain the important dissimilarities in how men and women think. The reasons will astound you.

Women have a keen sense of smell.

Men don't notice odors as much.

We may not be as strong as men, but our senses kick their senses' asses--particularly smell, which is linked to emotions and memory (areas in which we're more advanced) and sex.

Women's noses and brain circuits are especially sensitive just before ovulation--to both ordinary scents and male pheromones (chemicals released through male sweat). These increase a female's sex drive at the time when she's most ...