FOLLICLE STIMULATING HORMONE (FSH)
by admin - April 21st, 2009.Filed under: Hormonal.
This acts on the ovary and triggers the ripening of follicles that contain eggs, thus setting the stage for ovulation during the fertile years. FSH is not one substance but a group of more than twenty similar substances produced by the pituitary gland of the brain. Scientists are only just starting to study the multiple forms of FSH and to assess their roles at different stages of life. In the fertile years, high levels of oestradiol and inhibin (described later) suppress the brain’s output of FSH. When the output of oestradiol and inhibin declines after menopause, there is less suppression of FSH production and its level in the
bloodstream increases to ten or fifteen times that seen in the early part of the premenopausal menstrual cycle. The rise is gradual at first, then reaches a peak at which it stays for three to five years after menopause. It returns to the premenopausal range twenty or so years later.
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