What Is DHEA? How Can It Affect Fertility?

First, let me say, DHEA was not part of my pregnancy protocol, and I have never taken it so I certainly can't vouch for it's safety of effectiveness. But I've come across a number of articles about how it can boost fertility in older women. Read More:

New Fertility Boost (www.sciencecentral.com)

From the article:

DHEA is a natural steroid hormone produced from cholesterol by the adrenal glands, and in the body it is converted into testosterone and estrogen. The most abundant of all steroid hormones in humans, DHEA declines as we age. While it is most often marketed for anti-aging ("the fountain of youth" pill), DHEA has also been touted as benefiting everything from Alzheimer's disease to diabetes to depression and obesity, but there is no scientific consensus on any of this.

The National Institute on Aging says, "Overall, the studies that have been done so far do not provide a clear picture of the risks and benefits of DHEA.…In the meantime, people who are thinking about taking supplements of this hormone should understand that its effects are not fully known. Some of these unknown effects might turn out to be harmful."

Andrzej Bartke, a physiologist who studies longevity at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, warns that "unsupervised use may be risky, particularly in individuals who have steroid-responsive tumors or are at high risk (e.g., family history) of developing such tumors."

Cautiously Optimistic

Gleicher is fully aware that this is just one chance discovery, but so far he is hopeful that the implications will be far ranging. "We are very optimistic— cautiously optimistic," he stresses. "But we think that this may represent a way, at least for some women above age 40, to greatly increase the egg yield." He says the only other women he advised to try DHEA so far has already become pregnant with triplets.

It's also important to note that Gleicher thinks that DHEA can only boost egg production when used in combination with prescribed fertility drugs. "In a natural [menstrual] cycle, it doesn't matter how many…eggs she produces. In the end her body will release usually only one," he explains. "When you are on fertility drugs we make the body release more eggs. And so in order to get the full benefit of [DHEA], it is very likely that it will have to be taken in combination with fertility drugs so that the woman does release more than just one egg."

For this reason, he does not advocate women buying and taking DHEA on their own. He does say that older women who are in fertility treatment might want to consider it (that's why he announced Harben's case to the public before having it accepted by a peer-reviewed journal), but that they should only do so with the consent and oversight of a doctor.

He also stresses that he doesn't know why this works; or if DHEA is increasing the quality of the eggs, or just the number. But even if most of the extra eggs are of the typical poor quality for women that age, he thinks this can be beneficial. "Let's say ten percent of embryos at age 42 or 43 are chromosomally normal. If you have two embryos then ten percent is very little. If you have 15 embryos then ten percent is much more and gives us a higher pregnancy chance. Another way to look at it is we're buying more tickets in the lottery, to have a better chance of winning."

But in the end, the most important thing right now is more study into this phenomenon, something Gleicher hopes to start himself as soon as possible. Right now he's awaiting permission from a scientific review board to conduct a controlled, double-blind study that might offer more concrete proof that DHEA can increase egg yield in older women.