Why did you stop taking it? Even if you saw no subjective benefits, wouldn’t you want perfect DHEA levels vs. low levels? And what dose, route, and frequency were you taking DHEA to achieve that 450+ level?
Well, why I stopped is kind of a longer story. I have been a bit reluctant to post much about it as it might not be a popular subject.
Concerning DHEA, I was taking oral DHEA 25 mg a night. I hoped for improved sleep, it didn't seem to happen.
Not sure why you think 450 is a perfect level, it's way above the reference range for my age. The reference range Labcorp gave me was 30.9 - 295.6. The reference range medline posted online for a 66 year old was Ages 60 to 69: 42 to 290 µg/dL . Medline says for Ages 20 to 29: 280 to 640 µg/dL is to be expected, so 450 would be in the middle of that. Not sure it's ideal to be in that range, maybe or maybe not.
I know from previous experience a long time ago it doesn't take much oral DHEA to increase my blood levels.
When I was 43 which was 23 years ago, I took DHEA and got my DHEA-S level to
6672 ng/ml (800-5600). (Different scale) Again way above reference range, it didn't help then either. I can’t say for sure what dose I was taking back then, I was looking to increase tot T, it didn’t work for that.
Besides the lack of any evidence DHEA was helping, I stopped mainly because in 3.5 months my PSA level went from 2.4 > 3.9 then in 1 month to 4.2. I wasn't sure which hormone was causing prostate growth, DHEA or HCG, I was 95% sure it wasn't the testosterone.
While I doubt it was the DHEA causing a problem and I am pretty sure it was the HCG that caused an increase in my prostate and the PSA score. But since my PSA was quickly rising, I didn’t have time to experiment, so I stopped both HCG/DHEA and continued on with testosterone only.
I had considered either finasteride or dutasteride to shrink my prostate and lower my PSA level, but since I don’t have any symptoms of BPH, (LUTS), I suspect a doctor wouldn’t want to prescribe those and I am not keen on going that route.
So my major focus for the last 3 months has been in shrinking my prostate and reducing my PSA score via supplements. To my surprise, so far I have reduced it by 20% while maintain a level of total T of between 620-1200. I plan to keep this going for another month then stop those supplements, I strongly suspect (hope) whatever my PSA score is in March it will stay stable.
I
may try DHEA again as I think it is benign and possibly helpful for long term health to have slightly higher levels.
But now I will be checking my PSA score more often.
But this isn’t really a thread on prostate, it’s on DHEA, so I was thinking of creating a thread on the supplement I was using to reduce my PSA level, I feel good but there are some negatives along with the positives.