The fate and behaviour of estrogens in the environment are of concern due to the compounds’ endocrine disruption potential. Estrogens, namely 17β-estradiol (E2), estrone (E1), and estrogen sulphates, i.e. 17β-estradiol-3-sulphate (E2-3S) and estrone-3-sulphate (E1-3S) excreted by livestock constitute a potential source for estrogen contamination in the environment. A method was developed to separate and quantify the hormones by high-performance-liquid-chromatography (HPLC) and ultraviolet detection (UV). A combination of dichloromethane (DCM) and dicyclohexylamine hydrochloride (DCH·HCl) gave recoveries from 97.3 to 107% for E1-3S extraction from aqueous solutions. The recoveries from soil samples ranged from 80.9 to 95.2% (E2-3S), and from 86.3 to 91.7% (E1-3S), respectively. Results of batch sorption studies showed that Freundlich isotherms were nonlinear (N ≠ 1) with Kf values ranging from 34.2 to 57.2, and from 3.42 to 4.18 mg¹-N LN kg⁻¹ for E1, and E1-3S, respectively, indicating the sorption affinity of E1-3S was about an order of magnitude lower than that of E1. The hydrophilic sulphate group of E1-3S possibly shielded the compound from hydrophobic interactions with the soil organic matter and allophanic clay minerals that were proposed as sorbents for E1. Contraction of clay minerals, “salting out” and competitive sorption of artificial urine constituents were likely to have been responsible for observed changes in Freundlich parameters when artificial urine was used as mediator matrix. Plotting the effective distribution coefficient as a function of hypothetical exposure concentrations facilitated the comparison of the sorption behaviour of both compounds as influenced by the mediator solution. The results emphasized that using the CaCl₂ matrix might result in false inferences for the sorption behaviour of these compounds in a dairying environment. The four hormones rapidly degraded in the agricultural soils under aerobic conditions, and the majority of the compounds degraded > 50% within the first 24 hrs. Soil arylsulphatase activities were directly correlated with degradation rate constants of the estrogen sulphates. Estrone was identified as a metabolite of E2 and E1-3S, and these three compounds were observed as metabolites of E2-3S. Single-first order (SFO) and double first-order in parallel (DFOP) kinetics were used to model the degradation and metabolite formation data. The results showed that the DFOP model was in most cases better able to predict the parent compound degradation than the SFO model, and also enabled to estimate accurate degradation endpoints. ER-CALUX® analysis revealed the formation of estrogenicity during E2-3S degradation, which could partly be explained by the formation of the metabolites E2 and E1. Transport studies with E1-3S and E1 showed that the transport and retention of both compounds were significantly influenced by the mediator matrix. While no breakthrough curves (BTCs) were recorded during hormone application in CaCl₂ (10 mM) both hormones were detected in the leachate when applied in artificial urine. Rate-limited sorption processes were proposed for the delayed arrival of the hormone BTCs compared with a conservative bromide tracer. Intense colouration of the leachate during the artificial urine experiments suggested the hormones were likely to be moved by colloid-facilitated transport. Furthermore, the detection of residue hormone and metabolite concentrations implied that degradation of E1-3S and E1 was hampered by urine constituents such as glycine and urea.