Low testosterone female

I’m curious as to what your Dr says as I have paid to get mine tested. Mine were borderline low and I was advised to take DHEA prior to IVF (which I did). I had it tested just before the cycle and it was then way too high and I’ve since learnt it may damage the follicles in the final
stages so I’m debating whether to cut out the DHEA. Any way, I’m intrigued as to what your Dr says and what they advise (if anything!)

Hey Anna how much DHEA were you taking and for how long?

Hey Anna interesting! May I ask what your baseline was? Mine was 7 with a normal range of 8-60 ng/dl… what was the outcome of your cycle btw?

But yeah I’ll share what he recommends, I really trust my doctor

So mine was 20ng/dL (I’m in the uk and we use different units but I’ve converted it. I don’t know if the range you’ve been quoted is different to what we use in the UK too because according to your range my result looks very normal but by UK standards it was deemed on the low end of normal).

That result was prior to my 1st round. I didn’t take anything then but ended up with 2 eggs and nothing to transfer. So I was advised to take 75mg DHEA daily for 3 months prior to my next cycle. That was based on my clinic recommending it to anyone with nothing to transfer and a low AMH as opposed to them looking specifically at my testosterone levels. So for that round I then got 6 eggs and 2 blastocysts (also took COQ10) and had a live birth.

Fast forward to round 3 and I again took DHEA for 3 months and then had my levels checked and it was high (107ng/dL) but my clinic said not to worry, did the cycle and got only 2 eggs and again nothing to transfer.

So for upcoming round I haven’t started taking DHEA just yet but paid privately to have testosterone and DHEA-S levels tested and will aim to dose the DHEA accordingly so that it’s on the higher end of normal. My clinic have been very hesitant to really advise anything…

…. As their attitude seems to be unless there’s a randomised controlled trial saying yes it’s fine then don’t do it. So I’m kind of making it up myself a little bit based on research I’ve found online. Hope that helps though!

Thanks Anna! Yeah that’s very interesting - I know that the research on low testosterone for women is fairly slim, I am curious on the difference between the normal range in US vs UK. Anyhow seeing my doctor on the 8th so if anything interesting will report back :)

I’m going off the range quoted by the ‘it starts with the egg’ book but the company which I paid privately to have the bloods taken through also state that their reference range is based on local population data so that 95% of men will fit it… #yayforthepatriarchy but the ranges aren’t too dissimilar either way (it seems the book has just a slightly narrower range)

I’ve found it interesting to see that my testosterone level from December after 3 months of DHEA supplementation was really high but yet after an IVF cycle and a further period it’s now on the low end of normal so it seems that it has dropped loads and this goes to show how effective the DHEA is and how quickly your body looses it once you stop the supplements. So it’s given me confidence to think it is worth to keep getting the levels checked once I start on the DHEA again