Sex hormones, such as androgens, estrogens and progestins are naturally occurring compounds that tightly regulate endocrine systems in a variety of living organisms. Uncontrolled environmental exposure to these hormones or their biological and synthetic mimetics has been widely documented. Furthermore, water contaminants penetrate soil to affect flora, fauna and ultimately humans. Because endocrine systems evolved to respond to very small changes in hormone levels, the low levels found in the environment cannot be ignored. The combined actions of sex hormones with glucocorticoids and other nuclear receptors disruptors creates additional level of complexity including the newly described “dynamic assisted loading” mechanism. We reviewed the extensive literature pertaining to world-wide detection of these disruptors and created a detailed Table on the development and current status of methods used for their analysis.

性激素，如雄激素、雌激素和孕激素是天然存在的化合物，可严格调节各种生物体的内分泌系统。对这些激素或其生物和合成模拟物的不受控制的环境暴露已被广泛记录。此外，水污染物会渗入土壤，影响植物群、动物群，最终影响人类。由于内分泌系统的进化可以对激素水平的微小变化做出反应，因此环境中的低水平激素不容忽视。性激素与糖皮质激素和其他核受体干扰物的联合作用产生了额外的复杂性，包括新描述的“动态辅助加载”机制。