## 1 Introduction  
The majority of vital functions of the human body can be altered by endocrine disruptors (EDs), which interfere with the natural production, release, or elimination of hormones. Therefore, they disturb the performance of the endocrine system and can cause adverse health effects in humans and other mammals [1; 2; 3; 4]. It has been observed that particularly during fetal development and early childhood, exposure to low doses of EDs (ppb) can have serious effects on human life and reproduction, causing decreased mental capacity, genital abnormalities, and cancers [5; 6]. Many EDs such as phenolic endocrine disruptors can often be found in rivers and ground waters as they are widely used in the plastic industry and regularly released to the environment. Further, they can migrate closer, contaminating food and drinking water [4; 7; 8]. Therefore, it is extremely important to develop a suitable technique that enables the fast and easy detection of low concentrations of EDs, particularly in aqueous media. This article provides preliminary studies on the extraction and preconcentration of two important EDs, bisphenol A (BPA) and progesterone (PG). They have been identified as some of the most common hazardous substances in the human environment, often released from various plastics (e.g., baby or beverage bottles). Much evidence has shown that BPA has toxic properties, inducing estrogenic endocrine disruption and the acceleration of tumorigenic progression [9]. In 2018, the European Commission issued a new regulation on the use of BPA in packaging. The Specific Migration Limit (SML), which is the maximum amount of the chemical allowed to migrate from packaging into food, was lowered from 0.6 mg to 0.05 mg of BPA per kg of food. The new Tolerable Daily Intake (t-TDI) was set at 4 \(\mu\)g/kg body weight per day [10]. Additionally, since 2011, BPA has been forbidden in the manufacture of baby bottles and any food contact material intended for children up to 3 years of age. To protect aquatic life and mammalian consumers, the concentration of BPA in water has been set at 1.4 \(\mu\)g/L and in sediment at 9.9 \(\mu\)g/kg dry weight [11]. This has raised a great concern about the utilisation of BPA and its potential harmful effects on human health. Therefore, it is very important to monitor even trace amounts of BPA [12]. The major part of our work focused on the development of a new, sufficient method for the detection of BPA, which can further be applied in the determination of other highly dangerous EDs, e.g., progesterone (PG). PG is a hormone which stimulates and regulates the activity of cells and organs. Its secretion is controlled by the adrenal glands [13]. In the last 20-30 years, the knowledge about progesterone has significantly increased, leading to great progress in progestational therapy [14]. It has been reported that PG has revealed biological activity already at 123 ng/L, affecting human health, causing cancer, and disrupting natural hormonal activity. Currently, there are no laws that regulate the level of PG in the environment [15]. Over the years, scientists have been trying to develop new methods to detect EDs in environmental samples. Generally, the process involves lengthy pretreatment steps of the samples to reduce matrix interferences and to enhance the detection of the target hazardous compounds, particularly their trace amounts. Only after those steps it is possible to start proper extraction and analysis. Recently, the popular leading technique for the extraction of pollutants from environmental liquid samples has been Solid Phase Extraction (SPE), which allows relatively fast and easy measurements [16]. In the last decade, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) combined with SPE have attracted much attention, especially in the extraction of trace amounts of analytes from large sample volumes and complex matrices. Moreover, MIPs are low-cost and very stable [17; 18]. The principle of molecular imprinting is to create recognition sites for a target analyte in the polymeric matrix.