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Anti-Aging Supplement Is A Fountain Of Hope For Would-Be Mothers
According to the American Pregnancy Association, six million women a year deal with infertility. Now, a Tel Aviv University study is giving new hope to women who want to conceive – in the form of a pill they can find on their drugstore shelves right now.
Prof. Adrian Shulman of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Meir Medical Center has found a statistical connection between the over-the-counter vitamin supplement DHEA, used to counter the effects of aging, and successful pregnancy rates in women undergoing treatment for infertility.
In the first controlled study on the effects of the supplement, Prof. Shulman found that women being treated for infertility who also received supplements of DHEA were three times more likely to conceive than women being treated without the additional drug. The results were recently published in AYALA, the journal of the Israeli Fertility Association.
A natural supplement to fertility treatments
After hearing anecdotal evidence from his patients and the medical community on the benefits of combining fertility treatments with DHEA, a supplement marketed as an anti-aging drug around the world, Prof. Shulman decided to put this old wives’ tale to the statistical test.
He and his fellow researchers conducted a study in which a control group of women received treatment for poor ovulation, and another group received the same treatment with the addition of the DHEA supplement. The latter group took 75mg of the supplement daily for 40 days before starting fertility treatments, and continued for up to five months.
Not only were women who combined infertility treatment with DHEA more likely to conceive, the researchers discovered, they were also more likely to experience a healthy pregnancy and delivery.
“In the DHEA group, there was a 23% live birth rate as opposed to a 4% rate in the control group,” explains Shulman. “More than that, of the pregnancies in the DHEA group, all but one ended in healthy deliveries.”
Making grade-A eggs?
Shulman believes that women who are finding little success with their current fertility treatments could look to DHEA to improve their chances of conceiving. “We recommend that women try this DHEA treatment, in conjunction with fertility treatments, for four to five months,” says Prof. Shulman. It could also be used as a regular “vitamin” for women who have already conceived and are pregnant, but more research would need to be done on the compound to determine its effects, says Prof. Shulman.
DHEA, for 5-Dehydroepiandrosterone (5-DHEA), is a naturally-occurring steroid found in the brain, which plays an important biological role in humans and other mammals. Produced in the adrenal glands, it is also synthesized in the brain. The pharmaceutical version of this molecule is known as Prastera, Prasterone, Fidelin and Fluasterone, and identical generics are widely available over the counter in the United States without a prescription. Women interested in using DHEA to conceive, however, should consult their practitioner first, suggests Prof. Shulman, a gynecologist and director of the IVF Unit of the Obstetric and Gynecology Department at Meir Medical Center.
While studies on the effects of DHEA are far from complete – his test group only included around 20 women – Prof. Shulman hopes that further research will unlock the secrets of why the supplement aids in successful conception in women with an otherwise poor response to fertility treatments. “We need to look into what the drug actually does to make the body more fertile,” he says. “It could be affecting components such as the quality of the eggs or the follicles.”
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/193736.php
Hey Everyone,
Having worked with hormones, including DHEA for many years, I think the reason it works in this way is that it is preventing conversion of other hormones, namely testosterone, from being converted to too much free estrogen. Since it is an excess of free estrogen that is preventing women from getting pregnant in most cases, DHEA can help, but another powerfully protective hormone called Progesterone works far better because it works further up the chain of hormone conversion, and progesterone is the regulatory hormone, and opposes estrogen directly as progesterone is estrogens opposing hormone.
I prove to myself, and my clients everyday. No risky fertility procedures needed. Usually just taking enough of the right form of Progesterone will balance enough free estrogen that most women find no trouble conceiving, and carrying a baby to full term. Even if mis-carriage, or premature birth has occurred in the past. It is the Pro-gestational hormone, that is where it get’s it’s name. It is in my experience the single most protective substance on earth. Any questions?
Can it be helpful for the normal hormone imbalance due to aging? Gary do you have any suggestions?
Having problem with our skin can give us depression, yes it is due to the anxiety that we feel when we see other people staring at you and looking in your dry loose aging skin! Many people specially women who are experiencing this kind of scenario, but don’t worry there are many machine and procedures that can help us to stay away from this stage of our lives. Thanks to technology, for providing us high quality gadgets to improve our appearance and to gain confidence.
DHEA is a hormone. A powerful one. It’s sold as a supplement, as if it were, e.g., a B vitamin or a mineral, here in the US, under current laws. As if one could just casually take, as too many do.
Like all hormone replacement therapy it should be monitored for its levels, the levels of hormones it converts into, and beneficial and detrimental metabolites off the DHEA cascade. In my practice, when I do a DHEA challenge (compare before and after a trial period of DHEA) of enough DHEA to get DHEA up into the reference range, 1/3rd are now producing cancer-risk levels of estrogens (especially the more cancer-risky one) and/or testosterone. Of the rest, if they continue taking DHEA, the tendency over time is for women’s testosterone levels to creep up and men’s estrogen levels to creep up, eventually into imbalanced and even cancer-risk ranges. I’d rather the body on its own bring the hormones into reference ranges of absolute amounts and balances, via methods other than hormone replacement therapy, because that more likely fulfills “first, do no harm”. Colleagues of mine who give into patient’s wanting the “zoom” of feeling better soon, or maybe there are other reasons like this DHEA-mother connections, are still experimenting with DHEA, trying to find ways to dose it that does not risk “first, do no harm”. Nothing yet is certain about that. I hope there will be certainty eventually, as DHEA supplementation can be beneficial … if we can avoid the danger.
It may be that DHEA hormone therapy for infertile females, wanting to get pregnant, is safer than what I talk about below … or somehow worth the risk. However, I wonder…
DHEA is a hormone. A powerful one. It’s sold as a supplement, as if it were, e.g., a B vitamin or a mineral, here in the US, under current laws. As if one could just casually take it, as too many do.
Like all hormone replacement therapy it should be monitored for its levels, the levels of hormones it converts into, and beneficial and detrimental metabolites off the DHEA cascade. In my practice, when I do a DHEA challenge (compare before and after a trial period of DHEA) of enough DHEA to get DHEA up into the reference range, 1/3rd are now producing cancer-risk levels of estrogens (especially the more cancer-risky one) and/or testosterone. Of the rest, if they continue taking DHEA, the tendency over time is for women’s testosterone levels to creep up and men’s estrogen levels to creep up, eventually into imbalanced and even cancer-risk ranges. I, and some of my colleagues, now, would rather the body on its own bring the hormones into reference ranges of absolute amounts and balances, via safer methods, other than hormone replacement therapy, because that more likely fulfills “first, do no harm”. Colleagues of mine who give into patient’s wanting the “zoom” of feeling better soon, or maybe there are other reasons (like this DHEA-infertility proposed treatment) connections, are still experimenting with DHEA, trying to find ways to dose it that does not risk “first, do no harm”. Nothing yet is certain about that. I hope there will be certainty eventually, soon please, as DHEA supplementation can be beneficial … if we can avoid the danger.