Pregnenalone and TRT

[delmiro]

Is anyone taking Pregnenalone as part of the TRT protocol? do you mind sharing your experience with it? how long have you used it? were you levels low prior to starting supplementing it? what is your dose and how often? are you using capsules or in compounded cream? which one is best

 

[Vince Carter]

Some do and some do not, it's certainly not required inspite of being recommended or even "prescribed".

It's generally advisable if you choose to use it to start with 5mg per day and judge your tolerance to it. Try AM and PM as some may say it makes them sleepy. An oral micronized capsule is good and so is a transdermal cream. You don't want a cheap tablet by mouth.

 

[Gman86]

I haven’t really tried it yet, but my labs always come back at <5. I’ve heard the pregnenolone test is not very reliable, so not sure if I’m truly this deficient, or if the test is just not accurate. Either way, I recently received a bottle of transdermal pregnenolone cream, from Empower, but am waiting to use it. I’ve recently gone off my ai, so I want to see what happens with that. Don’t want to change two variables at once.

But here’s a podcast with Dr. Crisler, where he basically states that he puts every single client of his on pregnenolone from the start. He said he uses the transdermal cream 99% of the time, if I remember correctly.

SHR # 2071 :: Pregnenolone the Progenitor Hormone :: from Super Human Radio

Here’s another few podcasts that I have saved, that are about pregnenolone.

Cosmetic Radio 2011 - HORMONAL OPTIMAZATION / DHEA / PREGNENOLONE - 11/19/11

 

[Airborne Warrior]

Just started taking it today as it goes and started on DHEA last week. I have 50mg capsules and thinking about it I do feel tired lol. Time for a nap but gym first. I'm also interested in others experiences with this.

 

[Vince]

I supplement with 25 mg of DHEA and 10mg of pregnenolone. I take both before bed, I believe they both help me sleep better. Other than that I really don't feel much benefit.

 

[Sean Mosher]

For whatever reason, although it relaxes me, Pregnenolone doesn't help me sleep so I take a sustained release version in the morning.
As noted above regarding lab test (plus it's quite expensive), if you want to try it, work with your doc and titrate as needed.
Several of the docs mentioned above use something like 100mg a day standard for most of their patients.
I just can't tolerate that much so I'm currently using a sustained release version, 50mg.
I also definitely notice a difference on it...........calmer, more relaxed for sure.

 

[DragonBits]

For whatever reason, although it relaxes me, Pregnenolone doesn't help me sleep so I take a sustained release version in the morning.
As noted above regarding lab test (plus it's quite expensive), if you want to try it, work with your doc and titrate as needed.
Several of the docs mentioned above use something like 100mg a day standard for most of their patients.
I just can't tolerate that much so I'm currently using a sustained release version, 50mg.
I also definitely notice a difference on it...........calmer, more relaxed for sure.

So do you also take DHEA, because maybe it works better together?

I have both "on the shelf" but right now I am not taking them.

 

[Sean Mosher]

Yes, I'm taking a sustained release version of DHEA, 25mg in the morning as well.

 

[Gman86]

Yes, I'm taking a sustained release version of DHEA, 25mg in the morning as well.

Are both oral capsules? I assume if they’re both sustained release, they can’t be sublingual.

 

[Sean Mosher]

Yes, both oral capsules.
I'm trying out Nutrascriptives at the moment.
Have had success with Pure Encapsulations but they don't have a sustained release formulation that I know of.

 

[delmiro]

I haven’t really tried it yet, but my labs always come back at <5. I’ve heard the pregnenolone test is not very reliable, so not sure if I’m truly this deficient, or if the test is just not accurate. Either way, I recently received a bottle of transdermal pregnenolone cream, from Empower, but am waiting to use it. I’ve recently gone off my ai, so I want to see what happens with that. Don’t want to change two variables at once.

But here’s a podcast with Dr. Crisler, where he basically states that he puts every single client of his on pregnenolone from the start. He said he uses the transdermal cream 99% of the time, if I remember correctly.

SHR # 2071 :: Pregnenolone the Progenitor Hormone :: from Super Human Radio

Here’s another few podcasts that I have saved, that are about pregnenolone.

Cosmetic Radio 2011 - HORMONAL OPTIMAZATION / DHEA / PREGNENOLONE - 11/19/11

great info, thank you

 

[Dasein88]

Is it true that DHEA raises estrogen in men?

I realize this thread is about pregnenlone, but people have brought up DHEA and cannot say DHEA has given me any noticeable benefits, only strange sides, during the 10 weeks that I've taken it intermittently. It gives me poor sleep, and makes me feel generally weird, like mild trippy feelings.

 

[delmiro]

Is it true that DHEA raises estrogen in men?

I realize this thread is about pregnenlone, but people have brought up DHEA and cannot say DHEA has given me any noticeable benefits, only strange sides, during the 10 weeks that I've taken it intermittently. It gives me poor sleep, and makes me feel generally weird, like mild trippy feelings.

what was your DHEA dose? did you try reducing it?

 

[Gman86]

Is it true that DHEA raises estrogen in men?

I realize this thread is about pregnenlone, but people have brought up DHEA and cannot say DHEA has given me any noticeable benefits, only strange sides, during the 10 weeks that I've taken it intermittently. It gives me poor sleep, and makes me feel generally weird, like mild trippy feelings.

Yes it is 100% true. Not for everyone, and obviously depends on the dose. But there are many anectodal stories of DHEA raising estrogen, especially in men not on TRT. It has a different effect in women, usually a tendency to raise testosterone.

 

[DragonBits]

For me, DHEA did nothing other than raise my DHEA level. It didn't affect E2 and I didn't notice any physical effects. I went from 95 > 450 up/dl dhea-s, but E2 was fairly low at 20.3 pg/ml with 690 Total T. I might try it again with preg to see if it's the same, the main benefit I would look for is better sleep.

The only thing that raises my E2 is a raise in Total T. There are a few things that lower E2.

 

[Gman86]

For me, DHEA did nothing other than raise my DHEA level. It didn't affect E2 and I didn't notice any physical effects. I went from 95 > 450 up/dl dhea-s, but E2 was fairly low at 20.3 pg/ml with 690 Total T. I might try it again with preg to see if it's the same, the main benefit I would look for is better sleep.

The only thing that raises my E2 is a raise in Total T. There are a few things that lower E2.

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?

 

[Vince]

DHEA does raise my estrogen. I took different amounts and my estrogen did increase as I increase the amount of DHEA. I do believe, (of course I could be wrong) DHEA increases estrogen it all men.

 

[delmiro]

Here is the odd thing, I was only taking testosterone 140mg (70mg twice per week) and not HCG before deciding to take DHEA, I went and got blood work. I found that my DHEA was high. I didn't see a need to supplement my DHEA but my Pregnenalone was low, so I recently started supplementing that. I don't know why my DHEA was that high, (which is good I guess)

T: 1001 ng/dL
Free T: 32.4 pg/mL
Pregnenalone: 40 ng/dL
DHEA: 549.6 ug/dL

 

[Dasein88]

what was your DHEA dose? did you try reducing it?

I take 12.5mg intermittently, i.e. not every night, because of the sides, including, I think, waking up feeling unrested. Even taking DHEA intermittently over two months, it brought my DHEA up. I just don't know how significant it is for my overall health, since I don't feel any noticeable benefit from it.

 

[DragonBits]

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.