Dhea

AndShane

Active member
4 months into trt. Feel pretty good. Test levels are up. Did blood work and basically only thing that went down was dhea. It was already on the lower side before trt but now has gone to about 60. Still in range but still very low. Doc said supplement dhea. Any ideas what mg? 50 he suggested. Any good brands to recommend and is this even a huge deal?
 
Low free test but High total t. Dhea was lower but not terrible. Since starting t my total has jumped to 1000 and free t is on the High end. Feel great and stronger in gym. Only 200mg a week. However my Estrogen was super low due to arimidex so will scale back on that
 
If you feel great and blood work is fine, why mess with it? If you do add it in, start low, maybe 25mg and see how it goes. Don’t want to overdo anything.
 
It's normal for DHEA to go down with TRT- your pregnenolone and progesterone likely are as well. Supplementing to get it into the high normal range can make a world of difference on TRT. I supplement pregnenolone and even TRT didn't make as much of a difference with mood, memory, and energy.
 
kisaj said:
It's normal for DHEA to go down with TRT- your pregnenolone and progesterone likely are as well. Supplementing to get it into the high normal range can make a world of difference on TRT. I supplement pregnenolone and even TRT didn't make as much of a difference with mood, memory, and energy.
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So you find pregnenolone superior to just DHEA or do you take both? I have always heard preg raises cortisol so have swayed away from it.
 
I started with both years ago and dropped the DHEA because the preg conversion worked well enough to increase DHEA and the extra DHEA aromatized too much for me. For my purposes, pregnenolone is FAR superior.
 
kisaj said:
I started with both years ago and dropped the DHEA because the preg conversion worked well enough to increase DHEA and the extra DHEA aromatized too much for me. For my purposes, pregnenolone is FAR superior.
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Gotcha, so many people react so differently to these.
 
Sure it makes sense, DHEA is made in the adrenals, testosterone is made in the testes. With primary hypogonadism the testes aren’t making testosterone. I could see how this could potentially/theoretically trigger feedback loops to make the adrenals spit out more DHEA to try to convert it to sex steroids.

Potentially/theoretically

LaserGoPewPew said:
do you recall what your pre trt levels were for DHEA? i hope you get it worked out

What did your test numbers climb to? I am in a similar boat. My prelim blood work showed a very high DHEA level, however, my total test was 122. Which makes no sense

Heres is some of my nonfasting bloodwork. I can't tell if i was dehydrated at the time of blood draw or if i have some filtration/kidney/adrenal issues. I appear physically fit. Resting heart rate of 57 and i have been training a lot in January.

BUN = 24 (scale 6-24)

Creatine = 1.50 (scale 0.76-1.27)

GFR = 57 (could indicate stage 3 CKD)

Hemocrit % = 51.6 (scale 37.5-51.0)

DHEA-Sulfate = 418.3 (scale 102.6-416.3)
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kisaj said:
I started with both years ago and dropped the DHEA because the preg conversion worked well enough to increase DHEA and the extra DHEA aromatized too much for me. For my purposes, pregnenolone is FAR superior.
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I’m finally going to try supplementing pregnenolone, after about a year of seeing your posts on it. My DHEA and pregnenolone levels are way below range, and if I try to supplement DHEA by itself, after about a month I get bizarre brain fog that lasts about 8 hours a day. I’m beginning to wonder if I need pregnenolone also to balance that. I’ve been taking 5mg micronized DHEA orally the last few days and it just makes me tired for a few hours. I’m going to add in pregnenolone at 5mg to start with when I receive it.
 
GreenMachineX said:
I’m finally going to try supplementing pregnenolone, after about a year of seeing your posts on it. My DHEA and pregnenolone levels are way below range, and if I try to supplement DHEA by itself, after about a month I get bizarre brain fog that lasts about 8 hours a day. I’m beginning to wonder if I need pregnenolone also to balance that. I’ve been taking 5mg micronized DHEA orally the last few days and it just makes me tired for a few hours. I’m going to add in pregnenolone at 5mg to start with when I receive it.
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Let us know how it goes.
 
GreenMachineX said:
I’m finally going to try supplementing pregnenolone, after about a year of seeing your posts on it. My DHEA and pregnenolone levels are way below range, and if I try to supplement DHEA by itself, after about a month I get bizarre brain fog that lasts about 8 hours a day. I’m beginning to wonder if I need pregnenolone also to balance that. I’ve been taking 5mg micronized DHEA orally the last few days and it just makes me tired for a few hours. I’m going to add in pregnenolone at 5mg to start with when I receive it.
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Update: I’ve only taken the DHEA a few days in the morning so far, and last night no midnight/morning wood at all. I’m skipping a few days of it to make sure the morning wood comes back then I’ll add DHEA again to rule it out as the cause.
 
LaserGoPewPew said:
what is your conclusion? Did you straighten it out?
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No conclusion yet. Haven’t added DHEA or pregnenolone in again yet. My hesitation is I have naturally low cortisol levels (seen on salivary test), and if I have a poor response to pregnenolone and stop, will it drop my cortisol levels even lower due to negative feedback loop?
 
LaserGoPewPew said:
i have read a lot on Pregnenalone and DHEA over last few days and see a lot of guys feel better taking Preg ... why is that?

also - how long have you been on TRT

What is your protocol?
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Both naturally lower, along with progesterone, as we age and when we go on TRT it drops fast because we are no longer naturally producing it. Some supplement with HCG to allow the pathway to continue, but many don't respond well to it- as in my case. I was recommended to add in pregnenolone a few years ago and let me tell you, there is NOTHING that made a bigger change in mood, energy, and memory. I had to play with it because it will aromatize at higher levels, especially if you take it with DHEA. You don't need a lot in most cases to move into the upper normal ranges. I take 25mg the day after injection on TRT and I inject e3.5d. This keeps me in a sweet spot without increasing e2 too much. I don't take any AI and avoid them.
 
Not offhand, I got tested several times. I was in the bottom third of the range. Moving to the upper changed everything.
 
kisaj said:
Not offhand, I got tested several times. I was in the bottom third of the range. Moving to the upper changed everything.
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Reading old threads here...only a year and a half later and I’m finally gathering my juevos to try pregnenolone. I’ll be using .25mL of neuro P5 pregnenolone to start. Sublingual felt a little weird, like wired and tired at the same time with lots of water retention.
 
GreenMachineX said:
Reading old threads here...only a year and a half later and I’m finally gathering my juevos to try pregnenolone. I’ll be using .25mL of neuro P5 pregnenolone to start. Sublingual felt a little weird, like wired and tired at the same time with lots of water retention.
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the reviews of iconicformulations neuro p5 are fantastic, and by using code THEBIGT a bottle is only around $15, hellava deal, imo.
 
kisaj said:
Both naturally lower, along with progesterone, as we age and when we go on TRT it drops fast because we are no longer naturally producing it. Some supplement with HCG to allow the pathway to continue, but many don't respond well to it- as in my case. I was recommended to add in pregnenolone a few years ago and let me tell you, there is NOTHING that made a bigger change in mood, energy, and memory. I had to play with it because it will aromatize at higher levels, especially if you take it with DHEA. You don't need a lot in most cases to move into the upper normal ranges. I take 25mg the day after injection on TRT and I inject e3.5d. This keeps me in a sweet spot without increasing e2 too much. I don't take any AI and avoid them.
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Is this still the way you use preg and DHEA? Have you tried transdermal and if so, what has been the difference vs sublingual?

@kisaj
 
I've actually stopped the DHEA and only take pregnenolone 2x weekly now. I didn't stop for any specific reason other than I didn't notice much difference taking it opposed to not but I was seeing high e2 sides. Rather than chase with an AI, I just dropped it and the sides went away.
 
kisaj said:
I've actually stopped the DHEA and only take pregnenolone 2x weekly now. I didn't stop for any specific reason other than I didn't notice much difference taking it opposed to not but I was seeing high e2 sides. Rather than chase with an AI, I just dropped it and the sides went away.
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Thanks. Have you tried transdermal preg?
 
In the past, but it wasn't sustainable for me because I have young daughters that I was always carrying and holding so I had concern about transfer. I've always had good luck with sublingual so never had reason to switch over.
 
I would go with Invalid Link Removed. Life extension is a great company and they use high quality ingredients in their formula.
 
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