Gonadotropes are mostly quiet when you're a kid. When someone grows up, they get busy and send out two hormones that help the body become a grown-up body.
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Gonadotropes (say go-NAD-oh-tropes) live in the front part of your pituitary gland, a pea-sized gland under your brain.
They make two hormones, called FSH and LH. Both are short for long names, so everyone just says the letters.
Most hormone cells make one main hormone. A single gonadotrope can make two different hormones!
In young kids, gonadotropes are mostly quiet. When someone grows up, the brain tells them to get busier.
FSH and LH travel in the blood to the ovaries or testes. They tell these organs to make other hormones that help the body grow up, and to get egg cells or sperm cells ready.
Gonadotropes keep working all through a grown-up's life.
Scroll up to the 3D model and press Send FSH and LH.