Question

What are sex hormones? Why are they named so? State their functions.

Answer 1

Hint: It is something related to the sexual aspect of our body and brings physical and psychological changes in our body.
Complete answer
Sex hormones can be defined as a hormone responsible for the growth and development of sexual organs and characters. Sex hormones comprise of Androgens (testosterone and dihydrotestosterone), Estrogen, and Progesterone.
These are named so because they are directly involved in the growth and development of primary and secondary sexual characters, male and female genitalia, and gametogenesis.
Various type of sex hormones produced in our body are:

Feature	Androgen	Estrogen	Progesterone
Secreted from	It is secreted by the Leydig cells or interstitial cells in the testes.	It is secreted by the follicular cells of the ovary.	It is secreted by the Ovarian follicular cells and corpus luteum.
Function	1. It promotes primary and secondary sexual character in males like the growth of pubic hair, muscular growth, hoarseness of voice, production of sperms, etc. 2. It increases the basal metabolic rate.	1. It promotes secondary sexual characters in females. 2. It helps in the regulation of the menstrual cycle along with progesterone. 3. It increases the mineral density of bones and prevents bone resorption. 4. It helps in epithelial proliferation in endometrium and mammary glands.	1. It promotes the proliferation of endometrial cells and glands to aid in pregnancy. It also maintains the thickness of myometrium. 2. It promotes the ductal growth in mammary glands and helps in lactation after parturition. 3. It digests the zona pellucida layer of the oocyte to facilitate implantation.
Special feature	It can be converted to estrogen by the aromatase enzyme.	It expresses certain factors that promote osteoclast apoptosis.	It is known as the ‘pregnancy maintaining hormone'.

Note:
- The release of estrogen and progesterone is facilitated by LH and FSH secreted from the Anterior Pituitary gland.
- The sex hormones are steroidal in nature.
- Cholesterol is the precursor molecule for the synthesis of androgens.
- Testosterone helps in the production of Testes determining factors in the fetus.