A gonadotropin is a hormone that regulates development or function of the gonads. The pituitary examples are follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, released by gonadotrophs in the anterior pituitary. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone acts upstream to stimulate their release; its name does not make it identical to either pituitary output.[ref]
Anatomy and Physiology 2e by J. Gordon Betts and others. §17.3, Follicle-Stimulating Hormone and Luteinizing Hormone
The two pituitary gonadotropins are glycoproteins assembled from two subunits. They share a common alpha subunit while their hormone-specific beta subunits differ.[ref]
Follicle stimulating hormone is required for ovarian follicle maturation but not male fertility by T. R. Kumar and others. Abstract, shared alpha, specific beta and biological activity of the heterodimer
This provides a useful specificity problem. Detecting the shared component alone would not identify which complete hormone was present. An informative measurement or perturbation must distinguish the relevant assembled molecule or its specific component. Classification by target action, molecular composition and measured concentration consequently addresses three related but different questions.
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