Dhea or not??

[Sunshinelove8]

Hi all , after recurrent miscarriages all at 8-9 weeks , I suspect I have egg quality issues ( all other tests were clear except low amh)
I read it starts with the egg book which suggested it’s beneficial and there are a lot of studies showing how for ivf especially it improves egg quality / quantity retrieved etc However, my fertility consultant said stop it immediately and he’s seen it negatively impact his ivf clients . So I’m totally confused ! Wondered if any of you out there had experience of it working / not working ? X

@Racinglikeapronow sorry perhaps I Should've been clearer. From 2 cycles we have got 4 to day 5. 1 low grade blast and 3 slow. 2 slow ones were put back in cycle 2 and I did get a bfp but sadly it was ectopic. Cycle 1 2 months of 75mg and cycle 2 4 months of 75mg. My acne got really bad for cycle 2 so I suspect my levels got too high. Both times I had almost half empty follicles. 6 and 7 eggs and all but 1 fertilised normally both times. So there are some positives.

I agree with you all. I'm glad that my clinic is considering it but I do think they should test or at lest recommend using medichecks (it's much cheaper). I still don't know if it's the right type of DHEA that's been tested 😬😬. I think I'm just going to go ahead and start.

If your testosterone was 0.7 what dose would you take? I'm thinking 25 or 50 mg? I'm so scared it will go much worse than my last rounds.

I think I will take 25mg then it doesn’t seem as risky ! I don’t think I’ll tell my clinic though as they are dead against it and I was borderline for even being accepted by them ( get top results so want those who are likely to get pregnant) I hope it’s ok not to tell them with such a small dose .

How long would you wait b4 testing testosterone levels again after staring dhea ? How long do they take to take effect?
@Racinglikeapronow how are you getting on? X

@Sunshinelove8 I had to get tested every 3 weeks before they would prescribe me any more. So I guess that could be a good benchmark? It’s so annoying clinics won’t let u try it I would be stressing doing it on my own. Hopefully the lower dose will be fine.

In the book it says in a couple of months. I've given up at this point. @Sunshinelove8 have you had your DHEA tested too or are you just going on testosterone? I still don't know if my test was for DHEA s or not so all I gave to go on is the testosterone.

I just tested testosterone. I’m just taking 25mg dhea and figure it shouldn’t do too much harm ?? Will test in 3 weeks dhea and testosterone levels x

Did anyone start getting spots after dhea - does it mean the dose is too high? X

No and I was on 75mg a day for four months. I don't think it would cause spotting but you never know. I'd call your clinic if you're worried. Supplements can mess with it, pregnacare lengthens my cycle by a day or 2 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Thanks @SpyroC my clinic don’t want me on it so doing is in secret , only 25mg though ! I’ll retest my bloods in a week to check levels . When testing is is best to check testosterone and dhea level ? How are you doing? X

@Sunshinelove8 oh yes I remember now. The author of "It Starts With an Egg" recommends testing both and she gives the ranges for both too. I had my DHEA S tested on Friday so I'll get the result on Friday. It's too expensive to keep testing both unless you use medichecks. I've mostly been on 25mg too but I've upped it to 50mg the last couple of days as I can't see it going up too much by the time I get my results. I start down reg on a couple of weeks. How are you getting on? X

@SpyroC how are your levels ? Update from me .
Before I started taking dhea 25mg my testosterone was 0.9 nmol/l. After three weeks it’s now 1.17. I think optimal is closer to 2?? But I’m sticking with this as don’t want it to high .
My dheas was 8.33 umol which it says is in normal range on medichecks site.
Only issue is my oestrodiol is sky high on cd10 it was 1,300 pool/l Supposed to be under 800 in follicular phase . I don’t know if I was about to ovulate or something but it’s been flagged as abnormal ☹️

Hi @Sunshinelove8 I would wonder (again just speculating) if you are making testosterone fine and therefore don’t need to take DHEA. If I remember correctly you are taking 25mg a day and have gone from 0.9 to 1.7 after 3 weeks.

In contrast it took me 3 months of taking 75mg a day to go from 0.1 to 1.5 so you’ve gotten higher much quicker than me and on a lower dose.

I wonder if the difference means I had a big imbalance and yours takes less to correct? Definitely worth monitoring again in 2 weeks. When is your ivf due to take place?

I have gotten my testosterone checked this week. I haven’t taken Dhea since my egg collection 3 weeks ago so I wonder how much it will have dropped by if at all. That might give an indicator of how quickly it goes back down.

Hey @Racinglikeapronow it only went to 1.17 not 1.7 . I also just read that around ovulation testosterone does slightly raise . I think I was around the ovulation time but not sure . The medichecks doctor said the dhea supplement may have affected my oestrodiol and why it’s so high but again not sure about that x

Ivf due in about two weeks!

Hey @Sunshinelove8 how's it going? I forgot to update you, my DHEA S came back last week sky high at 16! (Almost twice what it should be at18-29yrs, i am 32) thing is my testosterone is only 0.7....almost exactly what it was well over a year ago. But then I suppose I'd not taken it for ages and was only doing 25-50mg a day. I dread to think how high my DHEA s was for my last cycle when I was on 75mg a day for 4 months. I guess my body struggles to convert DHEA to testosterone. My clinic aren't too concerned but I think something is up. They say I respond really well given my AMH/afc but I'm concerned the high DHEA s may have been having a detrimental effect on my egg quality. I've barely touched the stuff since finding that result out. I'm 1 week into down regulation so who knows what impact the stopping will have. I wish it wasn't such an emotional and expensive experiment 😬.

@Racinglikeapronow did you get your result? I remember you saying it took 3 months for your testosterone to rise so I'm wandering If mine was higher and gas now dropped but still I have plenty of DHEA in storage. I'm confused! I wish my clinic was interesting in monitoring it like yours, I like my clinic but think the are too relaxed around DHEA supplementation.

@SpyroC my dheas are 8.33 umol and testosterone was 1.12 up from 0.9 . Yes the dheas is very high too . I only take 25 mg so not sure whether to stop or not . My cycle is also messed with a 20 day cycle this month but that could be related to my most recent miscarriage.

Hi all , I’ve just had my tests to start ivf today and only one of my tests was bad - my progesterone and the clinic asked me was I on dhea . Apparently it can make it too raised early in the cycle . They’ve told me to stop it immediately and I’ve just been trying to throw up the tablet I took ten mins ago unfortunately without success :/ this may mean I have to delay cycling until next month . I haven’t seen anything on here about effects on progesterone. I’m with argc and so I trust they are pretty hot on how things should be and the fact they are delaying me starting . I wish I hadn’t messed around with this now 😣

@Sunshinelove8 I'm sorry to hear that. What cycle day are you on and what was your progesterone level? I have read that it can affect progesterone but with ivf they completely take over your hormones any way so I'm not sure why it matters, did they say? Hopefully they will decide it's ok for you to continue. 🤞🏻I've only taken the odd tablet since (just for fear of it suddenly falling off a cliff edge). It's quite daunting as they told me to take it for my first 2 cycles are I responded better than they thought I would. I'm nervous going without it now but it's the only way I'll know if it effects my quality. My clinic don't seem worried at all. It was really bothering me last night. 😬😬😬

Hi @SpyroC it was 5.8 on day 1 of af ( actually started yesterday but they are counting as today as it was late afternoon) . They said it needs to be under 3 to start . The nurse just said - are you actually on your period and then are you taking dheas then ? I’ve read a few studies that say it’s better not to start ivf with raised progesterone- news to me until today. It’s frustrating as everything else looks good , my fsh even went down a bit from 6 months ago x

@Sunshinelove8 how annoying! I am on a long protocol so I guess the down regulation stage shuts everything down anyway. When will you find out? X

If the progesterone hasn’t come down by tomorrow I’ll have to wait til next cycle 😖 I’ve learnt - listen to your clinic and don’t just do things off of google advice ! X

Good luck @SpyroC keep us updated! X

🤞🏻 crossed for you it comes down enough tomorrow! See I did follow my clinics advice they just aren't worried about it getting too high. I spoke to a nurse today to see what I should be doing and they said to continue with the 75, I said I've not been on that for ages and she said she'll talk to a Dr tomorrow and let me know. Testing isn't something they usually do so I actually think Dr Google might be better informed on this one! I just don't want my testosterone to fall off a cliff edge. It's the disparity between the 2 results that's made it unclear for me 😬. So annoying!