DHEA for Menopause: a look at benefits and dosing | Felice Gersh, MD
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2024
- DHEA is an adrenal androgen. As women age, the adrenal gland shrinks, atrophies, and produces less DHEA. As this happens, many women will benefit from supplementing.
Likely benefits of DHEA include:
* extending fertility
* strong bones
* increased muscle mass
* loss of visceral fat
* improved sexual function
But not every woman at every stage of menopause needs extra DHEA. Women with a history of PCOS or other androgen excess conditions should be especially cautious.
In this talk, I cover what DHEA is, why it is critical for health, testing to figure out who might want to supplement, and how to approach dosing.
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I am a full time practicing doctor. I see patients in my office in Irvine, CA and worldwide via telemedicine. If you need more healthcare assistance than I can provide in a video series, please contact my office:
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---- Contents of this video --------------------------
00:00 - Intro to DHEA
02:15 - Affects of aging on DHEA
02:46 - Testing and target levels
04:31 - DHEA affects in the body
05:25 - Musculoskeletal system
08:06 - Weight loss
09:02 - Cardiovascular health
09:42 - Fertility
10:18 - Immune system
11:53 - Sex drive
14:52 - Hair loss
16:45 - Dosing
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge so generously Dr Gersch. I’ve been researching DHEA for perimenopause so this was incredibly helpful.
DHEA isn’t available in UK and Canada :(
You are wonderful Felice! (beautiful name by the way) Thank you for helping all us women to understand our bodies and have a better quality of life! God Bless you.👏🤗👏
I was taking low dose DHEA, 10 mg in the mornings and unfortunately it gave me insomnia.
I had my DHEA level tested and it was on the lower end of the scale.
I am 63, postmenopausal.
IMPORTANT!! Note: I’d like to say that I had chronic pain symptoms after taking DHEA. I was having X-rays, chiropractors, so much pain that I couldn’t explain. All around hips and lower back. Suddenly I couldn’t lift legs or put shoes on etc. chronic back pain that I even took pain meds for. (I don’t usually take any kind of medicine OTC medicines.) I decided to stop taking DHEA to see and within 72 hours the pain disappeared. So please don’t just take this supplement without checking levels first.
How much did you take?
What was your dose? That seems like important information.
That happened to me too. I took 50 mg at night for three days and couldn't sleep for severe lower back pain and pain in my left hip. The pain persisted through the day. I couldn't bend over or walk properly. I thought I had sciatica, but as soon as I stopped taking the dhea the pain went away.
I waited about a week and then started again three nights ago with a lower dose (25mg), and so far so good - no pain.
I'm so glad I saw your post because I thought it was just me; severe back pain isn't mentioned anywhere as a side effect as far as I can see.
For context, I'm a 72-year old woman, about 20 years post-menopausal and my DHEA-S levels are really low.
There are several people who have asked how much you were taking. Will you please reply?
@@CriticalLinker Thank you! Very helpful information!
I take dhea daily tablet 25mg and if i forgot to take it I'm like a bear with a sore a.... (Butt for the US folk!). I have zero tolerance for anyone!!after taking it for 2 years my last bloods still showed it as being on the lower end for a menopausal woman. I have also lost LOADS of weight, i didn't want to unfortunately, but after 1 year of DHEA I'm super skinny!! But i also have lost muscle too, so now on testosterone and building back up with a weights programme (Dhea-s 1.05 ug /ml)
Thank you for this very informative video!😊
So I am more inclined to think and listen to my body in response to treatment and levels. I think if you look at levels and still not feeling well, then obviously it doesn’t matter what your level is. I urge most of you not to be lab lovers and get fixated on the ranges as they may not be pertinent to physiology. Doctors who practice medicine based on labs really don’t think outside the box and that’s such a damn shame. We are all individuals who have our own physiology.
Lab lovers. 👏🏼
What should your test level be mine measures in ng/mL
Does topical or oral stop your body natural production
Can DHEA supplementation be monitored by testing DHEA-S? If I understand correctly, DHEA-S is primarily produced in the adrenals, and should be evaluated prior to deciding whether or not to supplement. But the OTC form is DHEA. Thank you for your content, I am very grateful. 🙏
Is there a link between hair growth and progesterone? 🎉
Should DHEA be taken with progesterone if it creates estrogen?
What about pregnenolone ?
I think the problem with pregnenolone is you don’t know for certain which pathway it could go. You could end up with too much progesterone, testosterone, etc. My understanding is pregnenolone is a gamble.
I believe pregnenolone is a gamble. You don’t know for certain which pathway it will decide to go.
Dr. Gersh, I love your content. Do you worry about DHEA converting to estrone?
Yes, another doc (Dr. Robert Mathis on Santa Barbara California) said that DHEA converts to estrogen which is NOT what we want.
Great question
I can tell you, as a former patient of Dr. Gersh's for thirty years, and yes she put me on vaginal DHEA, it converts to a form of estrogen and testosterone, which can cause hair loss in women. She did not tell me that, a compounding pharmacist did. I stopped taking it.
@@alwaysright5901Why now if we are low on it ?
If you take a DUTCH test after starting DHEA, you'll know what your particular tendency is.
Hello do you order and work wit Dutch test no results for recommendations for menopause ? Also are you avail for tele- health if I live in illinois? THank YOU
Can DHEA be used in conjunction with HRT?
My doctor has me on bhrt to include estradiol gel, progesterone pill, and a compounded dhea/testosterone cream.
Supplementation with DHEA as well as with straight testosterone can cause hair loss in women. I was Dr. Gersh's patient for 30 years. She put me on DHEA and testosterone, my hair started to thin. A compounding pharmacist, not Dr. Gersh, told me that DHEA converts to estrogen and testosterone in the body and can cause hair thinning /loss. So I stopped both.
Important feedback.. Thank you! I used the DHEA compounded cream and became very irritable as a result. I stopped, and felt better. I'm now trying a much lower dose to see how that works in my body.
@@wendymccleary1465, it gave me acne and made me cranky too.
No. I was not on a high dose. Do not make such comments when you have no idea what someone's dosing is or was.
@@karenhochwald1616, I was on a low dose too, and I started getting acne and very irritable. I had to stop. It just wasn’t for me either.
Unfortunately, because you were taking testosterone AND DHEA, and the testosterone alone can cause hair loss, and you stopped them BOTH instead of one or the other, you don't know if it was the DHEA. I'M surprised she gave both to you because the DHEA is enough in women to boost testosterone a bit. Since DHEA converts to male AND female hormones in the body, I learned that the body knows what it needs and and converts DHEA into one or another as needed, so I personally would suspect the added testosterone as the culprit, but that's just my opinion from my research and my doctor. I understand why you quit both though. I'm surprised she didn't give you DHEA first and test and see how you did before adding testosterone. That's kinda crazy over zealous treatment.
100 what??? I'm in Europe and we may not use the same units as the United States, please consider that part of your audience is outside the US!
DHEAS blood measured by uh/dl
I'm in Germany and mine was measured as:
104 microgramm/dl (a strange small Greek letter that looks like a reversed letter "y"). It is just so annoying that the laborarories don't use a standardized way to measure hormones 🙃
Ther is an online converter.
@YoannaDilova there is a world outside America
@gilliandowney5225 Yes,I live in the UK 😁
I was using 50 mg of topical cream daily I had my dheas tested and it came back low
What happened as a result, please? You said 'were taking', as in past tense. It sounds like it didn't work effectively if you stopped, or perhaps another reason?
How much should a woman take AFTER menopause?
I understand 5-10 mg is a safe dose long term!
Can post menopausal women take it?
Yes
45 µg.
Don't have cream in India
What is the other option
Pills or suppositories
Even 2.5 mg of DHEA makes me very hungry and keeps me up at night. Why would this be?