Glands are scattered from head to toe, with major clusters in your brain, neck, chest, abdomen, and groin. Some release hormones directly into your bloodstream (endocrine glands), while others send their products through small ducts to surfaces like your skin, mouth, or digestive tract (exocrine glands). Your body has dozens of distinct glands, and understanding where they sit helps make sense of everything from a lump in your neck to why your palms sweat more than your back.
Glands in Your Brain
Three important glands sit deep inside your skull. The hypothalamus is a small region in the lower part of the brain that acts as the command center for your hormone system. It takes up roughly 2% of total brain volume but controls body temperature, hunger, sleep, and the release of hormones from other glands.
Directly below the hypothalamus, cradled in a bony pocket of the skull called the sella turcica, is the pituitary gland. It’s about the size of a small marble. Despite its tiny size, it’s often called the “master gland” because it sends signals that tell the thyroid, adrenals, and reproductive glands when and how much hormone to produce.
The pineal gland sits toward the back of the brain, near the top of the third ventricle. Its primary job is producing melatonin, the hormone that regulates your sleep-wake cycle.
Glands in Your Neck
The thyroid gland is one of the easiest glands to locate from the outside. It has two lobes and sits in the front of your neck, just below the voice box and wrapped around the front of the windpipe. It controls your metabolism, heart rate, and how quickly you burn calories. When it swells, you can sometimes see or feel the enlargement at the base of your throat.
Tucked behind the thyroid are four tiny parathyroid glands, each about the size of a pea. The upper pair sits near the back of the thyroid’s upper poles, while the lower pair sits near the thyroid’s lower poles. These glands regulate calcium levels in your blood and bones.
Glands in Your Mouth and Jaw
You have three pairs of major salivary glands. The parotid glands are the largest, sitting just in front of each ear. The submandibular glands are tucked below your jawbone. The sublingual glands rest beneath either side of your tongue, under the floor of your mouth. Together they produce saliva that lubricates food, starts breaking down starches, and protects the lining of your mouth.
Glands in Your Chest
The thymus gland sits behind your breastbone and in front of the major blood vessels leaving your heart. It plays a central role in training immune cells during childhood and reaches its maximum size during puberty, when it weighs between 20 and 50 grams. After puberty, fat gradually replaces the active tissue, and the gland shrinks to roughly 5 to 15 grams by adulthood. It still functions in adults, just at a much lower capacity.
The mammary glands in the breasts are exocrine glands that produce milk after childbirth. Both men and women have mammary tissue, but it only fully develops and becomes functional in women during pregnancy.
Glands in Your Abdomen
The pancreas is located behind the stomach, deep in the upper abdomen. It’s unusual because it works as both an endocrine and an exocrine gland. Its endocrine cells release insulin and glucagon to manage blood sugar. Its exocrine cells produce digestive enzymes and bicarbonate that flow into the small intestine to help break down food and neutralize stomach acid.
The adrenal glands are two small, triangular structures that sit on top of each kidney, roughly at the level of the lowest ribs in your back. They produce stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, along with small amounts of sex hormones. Despite being only a few centimeters across, they play a major role in your response to stress, blood pressure regulation, and metabolism.
The liver also functions as an exocrine gland. It produces bile, which is stored in the gallbladder and released into the small intestine to help digest fats. The stomach lining itself contains glands that produce acid and enzymes for digestion, and the duodenum (the first section of the small intestine) has glands that secrete a protective mucus layer to shield it from stomach acid.
Reproductive Glands
The ovaries are two small, oval-shaped glands located on either side of the uterus in the lower abdomen. They produce estrogen and progesterone, the hormones that drive the menstrual cycle, and they release eggs during ovulation.
The testes hang outside the body in the scrotum, which keeps them slightly cooler than core body temperature for optimal sperm production. They produce testosterone, the hormone responsible for male secondary sex characteristics like facial hair and a deeper voice.
Glands in Your Skin
Your skin is packed with glands. Eccrine sweat glands are the most widespread, numbering between 2 million and 5 million across your body, with an average density of 150 to 340 per square centimeter. They’re most concentrated on your palms and soles, followed by your head, trunk, and limbs. These glands produce the clear, watery sweat that cools you down.
Sebaceous glands are attached to hair follicles and produce sebum, an oily substance that keeps skin and hair moisturized. They’re most dense on your face, scalp, groin, and armpits. Apocrine sweat glands are a separate type found mainly in the armpits, around the nipples, near the navel, and in the groin area. They produce a thicker secretion that, when broken down by skin bacteria, is responsible for body odor.
What About “Swollen Glands”?
When people say they have swollen glands, they’re almost always talking about lymph nodes, not true glands. Lymph nodes are small, bean-shaped structures that filter immune fluid and help fight infections. They don’t release hormones or other secretions the way glands do. The nickname “glands” stuck because lymph nodes in the neck, armpits, and groin are easy to feel when they swell during illness. You have hundreds of lymph nodes throughout your body, with major clusters under your jaw, along the sides of your neck, in your armpits, and in your groin. Swelling in these areas typically signals that your immune system is responding to an infection nearby.