here's a reminder of where we got to at the end of part one of the menstrual cycle we saw that an individual enters puberty when they reach critical fat mass and their adipose tissue produces the hormone leptin which travels in the circulation to the brain where it stimulates neurons within the hypothalamus to produce kisspeptin that kispetin then interacts with its receptor gpr54 on other neurons within the hypothalamus specifically the gnrh neurons and in response these neurons produce gonadotrophin releasing hormone and the gene rh is produced in pulses there's fast pulses of gnoh and slow pulses of dnrh and the pulse frequency is important for influencing the effect gnrh has on its target gland the anterior pituitary fast pulses of gnoh stimulate the gonadotrophs within the anterior pituitary to produce luteinizing hormone whereas slow pulses of gnoh influence the anterior pituitary to produce the gonadotrophin follicle stimulating hormone and then these two gonadotrophins travel in the circulation to affect the female gonad the ovary and both of these hormones are involved in the development of the female gamete during folliculogenesis and in the production of the sex steroids which also contribute to follicle development but are also required for endometrial function let's start with looking at follicular genesis in more detail