Bad bloating from pregnenolone/dhea

[chaps]

My doctor wanted me to try a high dose of dhea (250mg) for 4 weeks then taper down mainly to help with depression. I tried this for a two days and even more tired then normal, so I cut it back to 150mg, still exhausted, cut to 100, 75,50. I eventually figured out I only seem to be able to handle 5mg at a time, anymore and I think it's lowering my cortisol too much, as it is i'm already dealing with hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue. Listening to a super human radio podcast with Dr Crisler I tried some transdermal pregnenolone, 45mg along with 1/4 a of a 25mg tablet dhea (6.25mg) twice daily. I felt good for 2 days, then started getting bloated, slowly kept taking away pregnenolone, even one pump (15mg) has caused this bloating. I even tried the MLM pregnenolone and 12.5mg still bloated me.

What is frustrating about this is the combination has made a DRAMATIC effect on my mood and overall well being. Literally in a week I ran into family members and they mentioned how much "brighter" my mood seemed. When I say bloat I mean, literally in 10 days I measured my stomach and waist both were up 2" I mean bad bloat.

I had cortisol saliva testing done 5 months ago and it showed stage 2 adrenal fatigue with low morning cortisol, I've also had blood cortisol testing a few weeks ago that just showed my morning cortisol slightly below normal, I believe it came back at 540 and the doc said 600 was in range. Has anyone had this experience before?

 

[Jasen Bruce]

I also like to mood benefits of pregnenolone and dhea, especially the preg. 250mg DHEA is indeed too high, normally 30mg-50mg brings levels within a good range. Considering your decreased your dosage of dhea down to 5mg, I do not believe that's enough to elevate levels to the point of having side effects. You were not using high doses of pregnenolone either. Has your doctor offered to test DHEA-S and serum pregnenelone? You can check these levels along with estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone which are all hormones both dhea and pregnenolone can increase. Any of these hormones in excess can cause edema. Although you are not on a high dosage of either you may be more sensitive to some of the effects of these hormones. But usually when edema is presented in properly monitored HRT patients 9 times out of 10 its either a non-hormone related anomaly or diet.

 

[chaps]

I also like to mood benefits of pregnenolone and dhea, especially the preg. 250mg DHEA is indeed too high, normally 30mg-50mg brings levels within a good range. Considering your decreased your dosage of dhea down to 5mg, I do not believe that's enough to elevate levels to the point of having side effects. You were not using high doses of pregnenolone either. Has your doctor offered to test DHEA-S and serum pregnenelone? You can check these levels along with estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone which are all hormones both dhea and pregnenolone can increase. Any of these hormones in excess can cause edema. Although you are not on a high dosage of either you may be more sensitive to some of the effects of these hormones. But usually when edema is presented in properly monitored HRT patients 9 times out of 10 its either a non-hormone related anomaly or diet.

Currently on:

20mg test e shot sub q daily
400mg I-3-C
20mcg T3

Total testosterone: 840
estradiol: 100

My dhea-s came back at 300 I believe, and my progesterone was 50% of where it should have been, sorry for not being able to provide exact measurements, this last consult was done over the phone, I need to get the bloodwork forwarded. I am starting with a new local hormone clinic Friday, i'm in Canada and it's notoriously hard to get the proper bloodwork here :S My pregnenolone has not been tested, from what I've read all testing for pregnenolone is unreliable. I think I may be having issues because of the thyroid and adrenal issues i'm dealing with.

I'm currently tracking my morning temperature for this new clinic and it's been around 35.7C, to give you some idea I went on a hike today after having 15mg pregnenolone td and 6.25mg dhea and I felt bloated and constipated, I got in the door a few hours later and took 12.5mg dhea and the bloat gradually went away and I could go to the bathroom, but I felt tired. So cortisol is playing a role here, i'm thinking that me being hypothyroid means I am not using all the cortisol the pregnenolone is creating and the result is bloat, just thinking out loud.

 

[Nelson Vergel]

Both pregnenolone and high doses of DHEA can increase estradiol dramatically. I would not be surprised if that was your case, chaps

 

[chaps]

What do you know .5mg arimidex twice a week and upping the dhea to balance out the pregnenolone and zero bloat

 

[Gene Devine]

Both pregnenolone and high doses of DHEA can increase estradiol dramatically. I would not be surprised if that was your case, chaps

^^^^What the wise one said above.

 

[Gene Devine]

What do you know .5mg arimidex twice a week and upping the dhea to balance out the pregnenolone and zero bloat

You need to get your E2 tested before doing any such thing and validate.

 

[Nelson Vergel]

How to Manage Bloating

 

[chaps]

You need to get your E2 tested before doing any such thing and validate.

I did get my e2 tested it was at 100, getting retested soon, The added arimidex has already greatly improved my sex drive

 

[Gene Devine]

I did get my e2 tested it was at 100, getting retested soon, The added arimidex has already greatly improved my sex drive

Well, if you are at 100 pg/ml Sensitive assay I'd say up your AI dosage for sure. 100 pg/ml is not a good place to be...