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Hormonally Speaking
How Hormones Affect the Fertility Cycle
By Teri Brown
The GnRH travels through the brain to the pituitary gland, where it tells the pituitary to make both FSH and LH. Dr. Shapiro says the system is "very persnickety" and requires that the GnRH reach the pituitary gland in pulses only. If the GnRH comes as a continuous stream, the pituitary will actually shut down and cease making FSH and LH, both of which are needed for the menstrual cycle to work correctly.
"When the system is functioning normally, FSH will leave the pituitary and go to the ovary where it stimulates the growth of ovarian follicles," says Dr. Shapiro. "Ovarian follicles are small, normal occurring cysts that each contain one egg. The FSH will tickle many follicles at once, but one follicle each month will be better endowed with receptors for FSH than her sister/competitors and will grow more rapidly than the others."
This dominant follicle will convert its supply of testosterone to estrogen. The estrogen returns to the pituitary and tells the FSH to stay at home and goes to the brain and tells the pulse generator to slow down. As a result, all the competing follicles get deprived of more FSH stimulation and die off. The dominant follicle doesn't need more FSH to make estrogen after the seventh or eighth day of a typical menstrual cycle. She keeps pumping out estrogen to such a degree that the brain realizes an egg is trying to ovulate. After 4 or 5 days of high estrogen levels, the brain is convinced the egg is for real and lets the pituitary release most of the LH it has made and stored. This is called an LH surge and results in several things happening:
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