FEMALE ANATOMY: HORMONES
Then there are the bits we can’t see, like hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers which float around in the blood stream, telling different bits of your body to do their jobs. Like little floating supervisors, there are hormones which control a variety of body functions. For example, growth hormone tells the various growing cells to multiply at a particular pace, mainly during childhood and adolescence. Without sufficient growth hormone we do not grow at the usual rate. Insulin is a hormone, made in the pancreas, which controls the sugar level in the blood. Diabetes is the condition which arises when insulin it not made, or stops having its effect, and blood-sugar levels rise. There are many hormones floating around the body at any particular time, regulating the many functions of the body. The ones are the ones which affect the reproductive organs.
There are two major female sex hormones. One is oestrogen (also spelled estrogen). Progesterone is the other. There arc other hormones related to reproduction, with poetic names like follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinising hormone (Ml), and women also possess the ‘male’ sex hormone testosterone.
These hormones are produced by, and act on, a variety of organs.
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