Two pyridine nucleotide linked oxidoreductase activities, 17 beta-estradiol dehydrogenase and 20 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, which were copurified from human placental cytosol as a homogeneous enzyme preparation, may represent dual activity by one enzyme. The affinity labeling nucleotide analogue 5'-[p-(fluorosulfonyl)benzoyl]adenosine, which binds at the cofactor site as a competitive inhibitor of NADH (ki = 1.7 mM), simultaneously and identically inactivated both the 17 beta and 20 alpha activities in a time-dependent and irreversible manner following pseudo-first-order kinetics. NADH and NAD+ markedly protected both activities from inactivation, and the substrate steroids, estrone, estradiol, progesterone, and 20 alpha-hydroxy-4-pregnen-3-one, conferred similar protection, though less than cofactor, against simultaneous loss of both activities. Stoichiometric studies indicated that 2 mol of affinity labeling nucleotide were bound per mol of completely inactivated enzyme dimer. The coincident and identical loss of both activities under all experimental conditions is further evidence that 17 beta-estradiol dehydrogenase and 20 alpha-hydrosteroid dehydrogenase in human placental cytosol represent bifunctional, stereospecific, oxidoreductase activity at one active site on a single protein.