DHEA

A hormone your adrenal glands make that serves as a precursor to both testosterone and estrogen. Levels decline steeply with age, which drives its marketing as an "anti-aging" hormone. Sold over the counter in the US as a supplement.

DHEA is a hormone your adrenal glands make in larger quantities than any other steroid, and it is a precursor — the body converts it onward into testosterone and oestrogen. Levels peak in your twenties and decline steadily from there, which is the entire basis of its anti-ageing marketing. The critical and frequently ignored point is that you do not control where it goes. Conversion happens locally in tissue and varies by person, so both androgenic and oestrogenic effects are possible in either sex — which is why the same capsule can produce quite different unwanted effects in two people taking it for the same reason.

Extensively studied with underwhelming results: meta-analyses in older adults show small or no improvements in body composition, strength, or cognition. Exceptions with better support: adrenal insufficiency (medical use) and some evidence in women for libido and bone density. In young healthy people, trials show little beyond a testosterone bump too small to matter.

• LIMITED even in adrenal insufficiency, where DHEA genuinely is deficient. The Endocrine Society recommends against routine use because efficacy and safety data are thin; a separate guideline only suggests a trial in selected women with primary adrenal insufficiency still symptomatic on optimised standard replacement, on low-quality evidence.
• Vaginal prasterone is a distinct FDA-approved PRESCRIPTION product for painful sex due to menopausal vulvovaginal atrophy. That is a different route, formulation and indication from an oral DHEA capsule, and its trials say nothing about oral DHEA for libido, bone or ageing.
• A modest body of evidence in women with diminished ovarian reserve undergoing fertility treatment, though results are mixed and it remains contested.
• In healthy older adults the anti-ageing case is weak: trials have generally found little effect on body composition, strength or wellbeing despite raising blood levels.
• DHEA is prohibited at all times under anti-doping rules. A violation does not depend on demonstrating any particular testosterone rise — the substance itself is banned, and athletes should check their governing list.

Short half-life, taken daily, and it raises DHEA-S levels reliably. What it converts into is individual and largely unpredictable without testing — which is why blind supplementation is a poor idea. It is regulated as a dietary supplement in the United States but as a controlled or prescription substance in several other countries, so its availability says nothing about its potency.

It converts to androgens AND estrogens unpredictably per person — acne, hair changes, and hormonal side effects occur. Long-term safety of chronic supplementation is not established; hormone-sensitive cancer history is a hard contraindication flagged in the literature.

• Anyone with a history of hormone-sensitive cancer, including breast, ovarian, uterine or prostate
• Women concerned about irreversible virilisation, particularly voice change
• Anyone with polycystic ovary syndrome, where androgens are already elevated
• Anyone competing in tested sport
• Anyone pregnant or breastfeeding
• Anyone who has never measured their DHEA-S

• Hormone-sensitive conditions — breast, ovarian and prostate cancer — where raising sex hormone precursors is the specific concern.
• Aromatase inhibitors and tamoxifen, which it works against directly.
• Testosterone therapy, adding to the same pathway.
• Insulin and diabetes medication, since it affects insulin sensitivity.
• Any tested sport, where it is a banned substance.

• DHEA-S, to know whether you were actually low — most people supplementing have never checked.
• Total and free testosterone and oestradiol, because the conversion is the whole point and it differs by sex.
• In women: acne, hair loss, facial hair and voice change, which are androgenic effects and the voice change does not reverse.
• In men: breast tissue changes, from the oestrogen side.
• Lipids and blood pressure.

No withdrawal syndrome. DHEA-S levels fall back over days to weeks and downstream testosterone and oestrogen follow. Most side effects reverse — acne, hair shedding and mood changes settle. The exceptions matter: voice deepening and other deep virilisation in women do not reverse when you stop. Anyone taking it for diagnosed adrenal insufficiency should not stop without their endocrinologist, since in that case it is replacing something genuinely missing.

US: legal OTC supplement (a specific DSHEA carve-out). Banned in most elite sport (WADA). Prescription-only in Canada, UK, Australia.

Papers about this compound, not proof of the claims above. A title says what was studied, which is sometimes a negative result or a different question entirely.

• TEAS, DHEA, CoQ10, and GH for poor ovarian response undergoing IVF-ET: a systematic review and network meta-analysis
  Reprod Biol Endocrinol, 2023
• DHEA Modulates Immune Function: A Review of Evidence
  Vitam Horm, 2018
• DHEA and DHEA-S: a review
  J Clin Pharmacol, 1999

• Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA): Pharmacological Effects and Potential Therapeutic ApplicationMini Rev Med Chem · 2023
• DHEA in bone: the role in osteoporosis and fracture healingArch Osteoporos · 2020
• DHEA and mortality: what is the nature of the association?J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol · 2015
• DHEA Modulates Immune Function: A Review of EvidenceVitam Horm · 2018
• DHEA, physical exercise and dopingJ Steroid Biochem Mol Biol · 2015
• Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in relation to breast cancerVitam Horm · 2025
• DHEA and DHEA-S: a reviewJ Clin Pharmacol · 1999
• The Immunoregulatory Actions of DHEA in Tuberculosis, A Tool for Therapeutic Intervention?Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) · 2022
• DHEA and cognitive function in the elderlyJ Steroid Biochem Mol Biol · 2015
• DHEA - a precursor of ERβ ligandsJ Steroid Biochem Mol Biol · 2015
• DHEA in Prenatal and Postnatal Life: Implications for Brain and BehaviorVitam Horm · 2018
• Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) as a tool for conservationEnviron Monit Assess · 2026