Question

what significant process does a spike in lunteninzing hormone trigger in female mammals? Describe some of the changes that occur as a result of this process?

Answer 1

In women, the hormone stimulates the ovaries to produce oestradiol. Two weeks into a woman's cycle, a surge in luteinizing hormone causes the ovaries to release an egg during ovulation. If fertilization occurs, luteinizing hormone will stimulate the corpus luteum, which produces progesterone to sustain the pregnancy.

When the amount of estrogen produced in your body reaches a certain level, it causes the pituitary gland to release a surge of LH.

Positive feedback by estrogens also occurs in the gonadal axis of female mammals and is responsible for the midcycle surge of LH that stimulates ovulation.

The rapid increase in LH levels at mid-cycle (LH surge) causes a suspension of granulosa cell mitosis and permits final oocyte maturation to begin and luteinization of the cumulus-oophorus to occur. The high levels of LH prevent further growth of the non-dominant follicles.