Hormones

Natural (biogenic) hormones are produced by all mammals and fish. Synthetic hormones are important pharmaceutical compounds. Exposure to very low concentrations of some of these compounds during certain periods of an organism’s development can induce undesirable changes in endrocrine system chemistry resulting in developmental deformities or other maladies resulting in their classification as “endocrine disrupting compounds”. The NWQL determines a subset of natural and synthetic hormones and related compounds in water by analyte isolation using solid-phase extraction (SPE), derivatization, and analyte using gas chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (GC/MSMS) as described in USGS Techniques and Method Report 5-B9 available at https://doi.org/10.3133/tm5B9. The NWQL provides a complementary research method for hormones in solids/sediment matrices that uses accelerated solvent extraction (ASE), analyte isolation and cleanup by SPE, and similar derivatization and analysis by GC/MSMS as applied to water matrices.