Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Steroid Hormone Analysis: Design Strategies, Recognition Mechanisms, and Detection Applications.

Steroid hormones are important trace bioactive compounds found in food, environmental, biological, and regulatory samples. However, their accurate analysis remains challenging due to their low concentration, strong hydrophobicity, highly similar structures, and susceptibility to interference from complex matrices. Molecularly imprinted polymers contain binding sites designed to complement target molecules in size, shape, and functional-group arrangement and have been applied to the selective enrichment and detection of steroid hormones. This review examines steroid hormone molecularly imprinted polymers with emphasis on hormone structure, template and monomer selection, cross-linkers, porogens, and surface or magnetic imprinting strategies. Furthermore, it summarizes the integrated applications of molecularly imprinted polymers with electrochemistry, optics, quartz crystal microbalances, surface plasmon resonance, photonic crystals, and wearable sensing platforms, and reviews their current applications in environmental monitoring, food safety analysis, clinical testing, and biomonitoring. Key priorities are rational imprint design, matrix-compatible interfaces, and standardized performance evaluation to support the use of steroid hormone molecularly imprinted polymers in complex samples.