So I have been diagnosed with low amh 5.7 for my age (36). My clinic suggested that I take dhea but didn't seem to think I needed to get tested and said I could just start taking it. I wasn't confident doing that so got tested through medichecks. My results have just come back and it has come back as totally normal at 7.8 umol.
Would anyone still take DHEA to boost number of eggs and quality? I was planning to delay my ivf cycle by 3 months to do a course of regular acupuncture and supplements including ubiquinol and dhea but now im unsure whether to include dhea into my plan
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Babybana
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Your reply doesn’t seem to have published right, but I just checked my results and saw that my result for dhea was 2.23 umol, in a normal range of 1.65 to 9.15. If you’re 7.8 I’m not sure that you have much scope to take dhea without going over range - but I’m no doctor! I think you should speak to your clinic maybe now that you have results. Xx
Yeh im a bit annoyed that they told me to just take it saying I dont need to get tested. The Rebecca fett book said the highest for my age was 6.9 so 7.8 is above average according to her book but within range according to medichecks.
I wonder how this correlates with egg reserve or if it does at all
I wouldn’t take it. My doctor has a pretty strong opinion that DHEA is one of those things that you shouldn’t take unless you’re deficient. If you’re looking to improve egg quality, you could consider myo-inositol instead. Totally safe and has good evidence behind it xx
Agree with you here! Inositol once I took it consistently definitely helped with egg quality. I took dhea but as you can see in my reply above, my levels were right at the bottom of the range xx
Plus ubiquinol! Lots of it! It’s expensive. With lower amh I would go for as much as poss - at least 300mg daily, or 200mg twice a day, or even 300mg twice a day. I got it on Amazon from the brand health thru nutrition xx
I'm taking 600mg if ubiquinol a day! 2 x 300mg. I ordered it off big vits as its the only place I could find a high dose for a reasonable price that was suitable for vegetarians. It cost me about £60 for 60 tablets so one month supply if I'm taking 2 a day. I have to say I noticed myself feeling a lot perkier with more energy literally a few days after I started taking it so im going to keep investing in it.
Yep, myo-inositol helps improve insulin sensitivity so def a good thing to take if you have t2 diabetes. The standard dose is 2000 mg twice daily. I take Inofolic Alpha and have been really happy with it xx
I took it without medical input and had a terrible time, insomnia, hair loss, greasy skin... took months for my periods to get back on track - I don’t recommend it x
Thank you for the reply. It was a bit careless of my clinic to recommend I take it without getting tested. So glad I got tested now as I was actually considering just taking it like that
Hi there, I also looked into DHEA and also got mine tested with medichecks before taking it and mine was 3.99. As it was in the normal range, I didn’t go ahead. I’m not sure DHEA is something I would want to take unless really necessary. And with your results I would definitely assume it wasn’t. Well done for checking x
I’m afraid I’m not a good person to ask sadly! I thought I’d finally got the winning combo of supplements for my last EC and although I did get eggs collected and fertilised, after PGS testing we didn’t have any viable embryos that round. Sorry lovely, I wish I could give advice but there will be people here who will 🙂xx
Hiya, it’s been useful reading this as I’ve bought some dhea ready for my next ivf cycle but not tested (clinic thought ok). Please can I check that the test you got from medichecks was the DHEA sulphate (DHEAS) one? Thanks!
I took dhea after trying to conceive for years and then conceived naturally. I took it for over 12 months and had no side effects. It was recommended to me by a fertility specialist and I had no checks beforehand. It’s largely used in most country’s including the us. I personally think it’s a game changer.
Hi thanks for the reply. I know dhea has helped lots of women conceive / collect good eggs however my only reservation is that how would you know if its only worked because your levels were already quite low?
Because I now know that my levels are in a really good range for my age now I would be worried that I will end up in that category of women who suffer horrendous side effects 😫😫😫.
Its honestly such a minefield when it comes to supplements. I'm speaking to my consultant on Tuesday so will see what her thoughts are
I was also advised to take melatonin for egg quality, which I did (slept so well throughout the treatment time too which was a bonus.) I did have a great result in terms of egg quality and then got 6 normal pgs tested embryos from 2 back to back cycles and i’m 38 with an amh of 7. I also took dhea but didn’t get tested.
I took DHEA without a test and noticed a difference. On my first round I got 5 eggs and on my second after taking it in got 11!! It was either the DHEA or the CQ10 that made the difference xx
I had a failed cycle due to empty follicle syndrome in 2015 my AMH was very low . Fast forward to 2021 I’ve been supplementing with DHEA & COQ10 for 4 months and got 7 eggs / 6 fertilised 2 made it to transfer grade 4AA & 4AB I would defo would recommend these supplements . Sadly neither implanted but it’s given me hope that I reached so far and produced some good quality eggs s I am currently prepping for another cycle, I am 39 years old xx
Thank you for this post. I am 43 and doing IVF/ ICSI and keep hearing about taking DHEA to improve egg quality. Luckily I read about it a little and always got the impression that it is only suitable for some people with diminished ovarian reserve and should not be taken without medical supervision so I was never comfortable just buying it. I opted for COQ10 instead.
Due to a recent negative outcome, I looked into it again and still felt uncomfortable so did not go for it. Reading this has helped confirm that my decision is probably the right one. Glad that you used your knowledge to investigate the recommendation rather than rushing to “fix the issue”.
Thank you so much. Its definitely worth getting tested for dhea just so you know if your levels are OK or could do with a boost. If my levels had come back low I definitely would have taken it and continued to test my levels every month just to make sure I wasn't taking a dose higher than I needed
it has been shown in multiple clinical trials to improve rates of live birth if you have low AMH, so if i were you i would take it: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl... also helped me i think although i took it due to my age (43 at the time of my successful IVF cycle)
I have diminished ovarian reserve and AMH of 2.5 (two years ago), 39 years old. I had a successful transfer following ICSI in 2018 and the only supplement I took was Ubiquinol and a cheap pre natal.
we’re going to try again and I asked my doctor about DHEA & she said I should take it but testing wasn’t necessary. I was dubious about this as its contrary to whats advised in ISWTE. I am waiting to have my AMH tested again before deciding what to do but i’m going to push to test DHEA levels before or i’ll buy a test directly.
Doctor also said to take CoQ10 / Ubiquinol but not to take melatonin as there was no proof it has an impact (although I know they use it in other countries). As part of the DHEA conversation the doctor said I could take testosterone for three weeks instead as it would have the same impact but I can’t find any info about this so i’m not sure...xx
Oh I have no idea about testosterone didnt even know we could take that. Tbh I find dabbling with hormones all a bit scary. Amazing what we are willing to do to get healthy eggs and give ourselves the best chance
Hi just reading your post i was told to take these as I had a failed cycle in March and starting cycle 2 in May they wanted me to start this period but I knew my body wasn't up for it and but its the most different preoid ever so I'd say these are working fingers crossed 🤞 I collected 10 eggs 5 made it to blast but only one to transfer so they told me to take these to produce more quality eggs I have no known problem im 35 and have a 10 year old girl conceived naturally hope this helps.i take 6 capsules of the my inositol 500mg a tablet my daily and 1 coq10 600mg
Hi babybana,When I started this journey my AMH was 5.5 (I was 36). My clinic didn't advise me to take any supplements and on my first cycle I got 11 eggs, 10 mature and 9 fertilised. Out of the 9, I only ended up with 3 average embryos, none of which stuck for me.
This year I moved clinics and had my AMH retested and it came back at 13.9 (at 37 yrs)🤷♀️!! This clinic advised me to take vitamin D, COQ10 and Omega 3. I managed to get 15 eggs, 13 mature and fertilised. From the 13, i have 2 top grade A embryos put back in last week and have 6 embryos in the freezer, 3 x grade A and 3 x grade C.
I think these supplements 100% helped my egg quality. I also started acupuncture a month prior to starting treatment.
Hi, please how long did you take this supplements before eeg collection? I have been taking them myself for about 5weeks now because my AMH is very low 0.15 am almost 42 years old and have severe adenomyosis too
Ok,thank you do much.so that means am on track I don’t no when I will start as am on dienogest straten 2mg till end June to treat my Adenomyosis before going for my last frozen Embrayo transfer and if that doesn’t work I will see if I will do 1 last fresh collection or stop and be trying naturally that is why am taking all this supplements vitamins D-3 5000iu vita E 800iu. vita C 3000mg omega3 2000mg inositol 3000mg coq10 600mg folic acid 800mcg zinc 22mg melatonin 3mg I just Resveratrol 2000mg I hope and pray I get lucky and it works for me. PS my husband is also taking this supplements
Hi jenniwenni. I took 100mg of coq10. Where are you in your journey. Wishing you all the luck. I got my bfp on 20th April so currently 7 weeks and 4 days x x
Oh I'm so sorry to hear this. Were you far along? I desperately just want 12 weeks to come. I have a private scan at 9 weeks as I don't think I can wait until 12 to see if everything is OK. My nausea is awful. I'm literally nauseous all day x
My doctor said it’s not about having good DHEA levels for your age as the reference ranges decrease with age. It’s about trying to get back to having good levels for those in their early 20s. That’s the main reason why they say you don’t need to bother testing because if you’re in your mid/late 30s or older it’s unlikely you’ll have peak DHEA levels even if they’re ok for your age.
I thought that you had to test whilst taking dhea as too much can raise your testosterone levels too high? I wonder has anyone got a link or a document saying that too much testosterone is bad for eggs because I seem to see lots of people taking it and not testing their levels but still getting good results. But I thought too much testosterone was bad.My starting levels were dhea 3.02 and testosterone 0.6 and they have jumped to 5.77 dhea and 3.98 testosterone. Testosterone shouldn't be any higher than 2 so mine is double and this was just on 25 every other day. I have stopped for two weeks and I'm testing again this week. Looks like I won't be able to get my dhea any higher without the testosterone going higher which of course I can't do.
I knew I saved this post for a reason. I recently had my levels checked with medicheck. I'm 40, AMH 3.68, medicheck results 10.2umol/L, apparently within range but according to it starts with an egg I'm way above so best not to take it, I think, I don't know agggghhhhhhh!
I choose to take dhea after some research I had 2 mmc at 12w so thought I’m 38 my eggs aren’t great so took it aswel as ubiquinol pqq amongst other supplements we were Ttc naturally we were pregnant again in 3 mths but it was the weakest out of the 3 pregnancies and we mc again can’t say either way if it helped to conceive but egg quality I don’t think it made any difference. I had my Amh tested at 39 it was 3.4pmol I had an hsg then another 2 chemicals soon after then naturally conceived again at 40 in 6 mths after stopping all supplements & I’m currently 37w Pregnant.
I can’t say take or not I think everyone different it could help.
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