Video Transcript
Which organ, or organs, release the
majority of estrogen and progesterone in a nonpregnant female?
You may recall that estrogen and
progesterone are hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers
that in animals, like humans, are produced by cells within the glands of the
endocrine system. These hormones are secreted into
the bloodstream, which transports them to their target cells within various organs
and tissues in the body where they are needed. Some of the main glands in the
human endocrine system are represented as the pink organs in the diagram on the
right.
The pituitary gland is often
referred to as the master gland because it secretes several different hormones that
influence the activity of other endocrine glands, including the ovaries. However, the pituitary gland itself
does not secrete estrogen or progesterone. The pancreas is responsible for the
secretion of hormones such as insulin and glucagon in response to metabolic changes
in the body, like an increase or decrease in blood glucose concentration.
The sex organs, which are otherwise
known as the gonads, are the only glands that differ significantly in structure and
function between biological males and biological females. However, for space, both have been
shown in the same person on this diagram. The gonads, which are the two
ovaries in biological females and the two testes in biological males, are the glands
that are primarily responsible for producing a wide range of sex hormones. As the question concerns the body
of a biological female, let’s remove the testes from the diagram and explore the
hormones that are mainly released by the ovaries in more detail.
The ovaries secrete many hormones,
including estrogen and progesterone. These two hormones regulate the
menstrual cycle, reproductive processes, and the development of secondary sexual
characteristics in biological females. Note that the question asks
specifically about the body of a nonpregnant person, as these hormones can be
released from other structures too when a female is pregnant. For instance, when an egg cell is
released from an ovary during ovulation, the mature follicle that it was released
from transforms into a structure called the corpus luteum, which releases
progesterone during pregnancy.
Now we know that the organs in a
nonpregnant female’s body that releases the majority of estrogen and progesterone
are the ovaries.
