I'm thinking of taking DHEA. Anyone else take it?

[Chasterdly]

I am 40 and my AMH is 8.93 pmol/L. My FSH is 20 this month, although it was 8 in January. We have been TTC for 18 months now, so I thought I would try DHEA having read about it in It Starts With The Egg. I got my Testosterone tested and its really really low. My DHEA-S is low end of normal, and my SHBG is really high.

Has anyone else taken DHEA and did it help? I am really scared my hair is going to fall out, but I want to give everything a go that I can. We have been referred to a clinic back in January but are waiting to be seen, with covid going on.

Since your body makes DHEA and your levels are low I think it's a reasonable option. What does your doctor say?

@Chasterdlytook I it for 6 months prior to an IVF cycle (on the clinic I was with at the time's recommendation) and it didn't make a difference for me but there are plenty of people who would swear by it. I've since changed clinics and they are against it so I have stopped.

The only way to know if it will work for you is to try it but I would definitely speak to your consultant first because it is not suitable for everyone.

As far as side effects go I didn't lose any hair but it made my hair and skin very greasy.

I'd only take it if your clinic advises you to do so - it can actually make fertility worse if you take it without cause.

Your AMH is actually pretty good for your age and DHEA is only really for women who don't get many follicles during treatment

I don’t have a clinic yet, I have been referred but waiting for my first appointment.

I'd wait to ask them then - it's hard to get hold off too - mostly have to import from America and you don't want to waste loads of money if they say not to take it

Having low dhea-S and testosterone would make you a candidate for dhea supplements. It's only detrimental if you already have sufficient dhea-S/testosterone.

It won't help with increasing follicle numbers but it can help with egg quality that declines with age.

I had two rounds of ICSI in which I was too afraid to take dhea without consultant approval - with poor outcome - 1 embryo for transfer on both occasions.

In my last ICSI round, I took 75mg dhea for 3m prior to treatment and ended up with 6 top grade blasts. My medication protocol has been tweaked by only slightly and the only other thing I did differently was that I was eating better.

I didn't lose any significant amount of hair but skin did flare up a bit. The micronised dhea is supposed to have fewer of these side effects.

@Dia12 well my testosterone is super low, my dhea-S is considered normal at 2.19 umol/L but the range is 1.65 - 9.15 so, it is on the low end of normal.

I don't know my follicle numbers as I haven't been scanned yet. I am still waiting for my appointment.

Wow you got great results with the DHEA! Do you know what your testosterone and DHEA-S levels were?

I have ordered some micronised DHEA from iHerb...I just hope it gets through customs.

I ordered from iherb too - delivery took around 2 weeks.

I never got my dhea-S and testosterone tested but just based my decision on my ICSI results, the fact that I was approaching 40 and knew that it wouldn't have a detrimental effect on my fertility.

Also, fertility and fertility treatment is so multi faceted, it's rarely ever one thing that makes the difference and more so the cumulative result of all your efforts.

I also took ubiquinol 300mg, Mayo-inositol 4mg and omega 3, gave up sugar completely, did a lot of walking and spent less time stressing about treatment during my last cycle.

I ordered from iherb too - delivery took around 2 weeks.

Not sure if this was prelockdown or not. Now international parcels are taking much longer as they usually go in the cargo hold of passenger flights, many of which are cancelled.

I order a medication from an Indian on line pharmacy and it's normally 2-3 weeks to get to the US. My last order a few weeks ago was given a 5-6 week estimate due to the flights situation.

I did actually order mine in early lockdown and was expecting a delay but there wasn't any. Not sure if it's any different now.

I've taken DHEA for 5 weeks now (recommended 3x25mg by consultant while waiting for NHS referral/IVF). AMH 7.4 (age 38). He said it has the potential to maybe result in more eggs when it comes to IVF hopefully in a few months... we'll see!

I was so worried about side effects like cysts or annovulatory cycles, I paid for my own blood tests. My DHEAS has increased from 3.63 to 9.78 having only taken 2x25mg per day! Unfortunately my testosterone jumped from 0.592 to 2.17. so I'm a bit worried about it messing with my cycle... we'll see. Currently on day 11 and so far the only difference is increased EWCM which is very unusual for me (and a good thing?!). Only bad side effects so far is a very spotty forehead which pretty much happened after only a week of taking them. Am going to reduce to 1 and 2 tablets alternating every other day. I'm going to check my levels again in 4 weeks in the hope that the testosterone lowers but the DHEAS stays high!

I am very lucky with a fairly low FSH, very regular 28day and definitely ovulatory (high progesterone) cycles. Just AMH a bit rubbish. So I'll report back if this cycle seems to be affected in any way.

Consultant said to stop taking if experience fits of rage, excess hair and a sore throat! A few odd days I took 3 X 25mg and I did actually notice my throat hurting a bit in the mornings which is why I stuck with 2x25mg (not sure if this is relevant!).

I have read up loads about this as I was (and still am a bit) worried about it. It was only when the consultant recommended it that I went ahead. Definitely definitely recommend to get your levels checked before taking and also after a few weeks. I am just hoping that it will have a positive outcome for my IVF (whenever that will happen!).

I ordered Eurovital DHEA from Biovea early April, took 2 months to arrive. In meantime I also ordered from dhea-uk, these only took a few weeks to arrive at height of the lockdown, and as they are supposed to be micronized/better absorbed these are what I am taking.

Sorry for the essay, but I was searching like a crazy lady for any recent info from other ladies that had actually taken it a couple of months ago, so I hope this helps!

@Mimstew8 i was advised to take DHEA this time round (3rd round) and ordered from Biovea mid April and they've only just arrived! I started down reg this morning.

Where did you buy them from in the UK? As I really struggled to find a UK option?!

Thanks x