DHEA-what is the "real" story?

[UnwillingToGivingUpYet]

Hi All,

After one (expensive) round of IVF, I found that I have egg quality issues because of my age (42). I found some hope, however, from experiences with women who use the supplement dhea. I know that my doctor will not approve--I even had to fight with dh to get him to agree to let me try.

Among the claims for dhea supplementation is that it will dramatically increase egg quantity and egg quality because it restores the natural levels of dhea in the body to those of a 20 year-old. It is a steroid, however, and that scares me a little.

The NIH is conducting clincal trials on dhea in 2007 and 2008 for women under age 38 with ovarian reserve difficulties. Also, two clinics in ny and toronto have published great stats (2006 only) for over 40 women who are using the supplement. In spite of this, dhea is still unregulated.

I have heard that you should take dhea at 25mg,3xday for four months before you will see any good results.

What are your experiences with the supplement? Are there any side effects from using it for an extended time? Does it impact the ability to move on to de if needed?

[Kas101]

Hey there,

It seems you have done your research on DHEA so there is probably little more i can tell you about how it works and what it does, but i can give you my personal experience of DHEA...

After one expensive failed IVF cycle of my own, i also looked into DHEA as several months ago there was a lot of talk about it on these boards and i was interested in trying it. At the same time we moved so i needed a new RE and the person i chose happened to suggest DHEA as he said he had seen some amazing results from it (although I am scepital of the claims it will give you the eggs of a 20 year old)

As i mentioned, there was at the time, much discussion on these boards about DHEA and a lot of negative feedback from some RE's who discouraged it's use and although i was a little concerned i did take it.

I took 75mg daily for just 2 1/2 months and also throughout the stimulation process. I believe it takes around 2 months to have a benefit and after 4 months it has reached its 'peak', so taking it for longer is of no real benefit. ON my first cycle i struggled to get 4 eggs, 3 fertilised with ICSI. To get these i was on high doses and i got a BFN.

After the DHEA, with a new RE i got 9 eggs, 8 fertilised without ICSI and 7 made it to day 3. 5 of those 7 were grade 1 so obviously quality couldnt have been better. Thankfully it worked and i am officially pregnant. ALso someone else on my last thread, a fellow 'poor responder' who like me had previously produced low numbers of eggs also took DHEA and this cycle produced enough that she was able to freeze some. She is also now pregnant.

I hope this helps in your decision making. I personally can vouch for it and know others with success that they attribute to some extent to DHEA.

[Liam'sMommy]

http://www.centerforhumanreprod.com/pre ... aries.html

The Center for Human Reproduction is the place leading the way in regards to DHEA. You will find a lot of info from the link i posted.

I have only had transient acne as a side effect.

You can order it from DHEA.com.

I have been taking it for several months and i have my first retrieval in Jan. I won't have anything to compare it to other than what the average 42.5 year old gets at retrieval. I will keep you posted.

[lori power]

I tried dhea for 6 weeks - it caused serious heart palpitations and I had to stop - I had one follicle develop after that.

[babyhope1]

I had a good experience with it. It isn't officially scientific or anything, because I began changing more than just one thing per cycle to try to get the perfect working combo. Anyway, I tried IVF and had c quality embies, A is the best so C is a failure, the dr didn't want to freeze them saying they wouldn't defrost. I am 31 years old!

I had just one A qualty and one B quality which didn't take. So I don't have diminished ovarian reserve but I began to wonder if I had PAO premature aging ovaries. There was no reason for bad quality embies. So after an expensive IVF failure we met with my doc and she said either I need androgens or I don't need them. So my first IUI post failed IVF was an androgen cycle. I believe this is LH, so I used some follistim and menapur (menapur has the LH in it) and DHEA (a little side that doc didn't know about that has androgens). I was worried about the fast heart beat warning on the bottle. I purchased it at our vitamin shop and I took just one per day preovulation. Dr had mixed opinions about it but I didn't say anything about taking it.

Anyway, she was baffeled by my response. I stimmed (IUI + gonanatropins cycle because I hate clomid) for five days and my response was better than for IVF, I used less follistim per day etc. I said less meds make better quality eggs, she said yes but couldn't understand, I belive she thought I was doing extra drugs on the side. Anyway, I got a positive and have my first u/s on Monday.

I say try it, it can't hurt, if you have a bad reaction, then stop taking it. It is to increase number and quality of eggs, I certainly believe it did both for me. Perhaps I was in need of androgens.