DHEA - any success stories?

[ttcjourney]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum - been snooping around for the last few weeks and it seems like there is lots of useful fertility info, and a great place to gain support at this challenging time in all of our lives! I am about to enter my 2nd cycle of IVF (tomorrow i start down-reg) and have been taking 75mg of DHEA daily for the past couple of weeks. I'm 35 and my issue is low AMH levels (1.3), and unfortunately my hubby has low sperm count - just for the double whammy effect!

After the first cycle failed, my consultant has recommended i add it to my list of supplements. She basically said "it can't do any harm, so why not take it" Unfortunately, we only got 2 eggs from last cycle and only 1 fertilised, but stopped dividing after day 3, so no transfer

My question is has anyone here used DHEA to help egg quality and quantity and seen positive results? Also how long did you take it for before seeing results?

I've read lots online and have done my research but i haven't seen anything concrete, frustrating as it is!

Thanks so much x

[Sam_82]

Hi! I’ve got similar amh to you, similar age & husband has low quality sperm. We did 4 rounds of icsi and only once got an embryo to transfer, which sadly didn’t stick. We were just about to move onto donor eggs (we had paid the deposit to start treatment) when I got pregnant naturally. I don’t know what worked but I did take Dhea throughout the process. I was recommended to start start taking it 3 months before starting our first cycle. I didn’t experience any bad side effects from it. I also took ubiquinol & hubbie took condensyl to improve his sperm. We only found out about condensyl about 4 months before becoming pregnant so that might be what made the difference for us. We also, importantly, continued to have sex every 2 days between cycles, just incase. I didn’t see any increase in egg numbers from taking dhea (first round got 1 egg, 2nd round got 3 eggs, 3rd round got no eggs, last round got 1 egg) but it may have helped with my egg quality. Wishing you lots of luck! X

[ttcjourney in reply to Sam_82]

Hi Sam, thanks for your reply. Wow, that's fantastic you were able to get pregnant naturally! I've actually been hearing quite a number of stories recently about women who conceived naturally after IVF rounds. It definitely can happen. I'm also taking Ubiquinol 400mg daily. Fingers crossed! x

[CAS2]

I took DHEA alongside Melatonin (3mg), Ubiquinol, VIt B, D and E, Omega 3 and L'Argenine. We had three rounds and the third has been a success (so far, only 5.5 weeks and hoping it's a sticky healthy one!).

My egg quality seemed to get better each round (and funnily enough I didn't take the DHEA properly the first round). I only added L'Argenine and Vit E last cycle and had our best ever cycle. Ended up with 5 to freeze and 2 blasto transfers, grade A, which I was led to believe was impossible at my age (40, AMH 8).

I think it was also the protocol changes made along the way that made a big impact, but if I had to go with round 4 ever again, I would be taking the mix above up to 3 months before (but L'Argenine and Vit E once in a cycle, so basically the day I call in to book on!).

I didn't have any side effects but might have made me a bit grumpy at first, which settled

Also my OH has sperm issues and took a concoction of stuff and we made sure he had regular ejaculations in the lead up to the bog day. His results were normal on 'the day' too, hurray

Let us know how you get on!

xxxx

[ttcjourney in reply to CAS2]

Hello, and thank you for your reply

Congratulations on your pregnancy and sending lots of good luck that it's a sticky one!

I've also done some research on Melatonin and may add this one to the mix too. It's hard to know when to stop, as the number of supplements seems to be endless lol. I've only been taking DHEA for a couple of weeks so probably not long enough for it to have made much difference, but will keep going and fingers crossed it works! x

[precioce]

My story is very similar to yours. AMH was the same and husband had very low sperm count. We took DHEA from the start and later added Ubiquinol and Omega 3 with husnamd taking fertility vitamin which did help a lot. We finally had a successful pregnancy on this along with a change in protocol to natural modified IVF as we had two losses on the high dose long protocol. Our little girl is now 5 and a half months. Good luck.xx

[ttcjourney]

Hiya - thanks for your reply. That's great to hear you had a successful pregnancy - yay! May i ask how many rounds you did before falling pregnant? I've been told the average number of IVF cycles is 2.7 (so let's round to 3) before success, which makes me feel a bit disheartened tbh! x