Best DHEA Supplements

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a naturally produced hormone. This is considered a precursor hormone, which means that it is essential in the development of other hormones, primarily things like testosterone and estrogen. But if you are struggling with low levels, what are the best DHEA supplements on the market?

My top picks are:

1. LF DHEA
2. Life Extension DHEA
3. Douglas LAboratories
4. Pure Encapsulations
5. Fertinatal DHEA

Why DHEA Matters 

Your body naturally produces DHEA at different levels throughout your lifespan, peaking in early adulthood and starting to naturally decline after age 30. Some studies indicate that low levels of DHEA can contribute to issues like:

• Depression
• Skin health
• Muscle mass or bone density
• Mood swings
• Infertility 

With low levels of DHEA, your body can’t produce key hormones to alleviate stress, manage your weight, or enhance your sexual function. Your body also struggles with poor immune function, limited heart health, and declining metabolism.

However, you can find the best DHEA supplements to counteract these low levels and optimize your hormones, support your healthy immune system, enhance your sleep, improve your memory, and boost your mood.

How to Know if You Need DHEA Supplements

There are three key biomarkers that can tell you whether or not you need DHEA supplements. 

#1: DHEA-S

The first is DHEA-S. This is the precursor hormone used to produce estrogen and testosterone, so if you have low levels of it, it can lead to issues like vaginal dryness or thinning, low sex drive, erectile dysfunction, infertility, and even osteoporosis. 

#2: Total Testosterone

Your total testosterone is equally important to measure as this is an indicator of your body’s ability to produce testosterone, which regulates everything from your libido, mood, energy, to bone and muscle mass, even fat distribution. 

Low levels of total testosterone are a normal part of the aging process, but that doesn’t mean that symptoms can’t interfere with your daily life or become a problem. Men in particular, who are older than 35, will start to notice a steady decline in their total testosterone levels. Getting a biomarker test done for total testosterone can help identify the potential cause of symptoms like decreased muscle mass, erectile dysfunction, fatigue, mood changes, or bone loss. 

#3: Free Testosterone

There are three different types of testosterone, the majority of which is bound to your sex hormone binding globulin, so it’s called SHBG testosterone, and the rest of your body tissue can’t easily access it. Another is albumin-bound testosterone, which can be more easily accessed by the rest of your body. Finally, there is free testosterone, which is a small percentage of your total testosterone that isn’t bound to a protein and therefore can be made available for any of your body tissue to use.

A biomarker test to measure your levels of free testosterone is important in understanding how much testosterone you have that can be easily used by other parts of your body. Low levels of free testosterone in women can lead to obesity, blood sugar problems, hair growth around the face, infertility, and acne, and for men, it can lead to infertility, bone loss, limited sex drive, and low energy.

A biomarker test for free testosterone can help you determine whether things like low sex drive are caused by low levels of testosterone or by something else. 

Testing Your Biomarkers

One of the easiest ways to test these biomarkers is to use a simple biomarker test that analyzes several key areas, not least of which include DHEA needs. When you consider things like low sex drive as a result of aging, getting a comprehensive biomarker analysis from companies like MyLifeForce can help you determine whether that symptom is related to low levels of free testosterone, which can be improved with the best DHEA supplements, or another health issue which might require a different supplement. 

Resources like MyLifeForce offer a simple test to determine if you might need DHEA supplements, and if so, which supplements would work best. What’s more, their program gives you trackable data in a personalized dashboard where you can keep tabs on the changes your DHEA supplements have made. 

The Best DHEA Supplements

But testing your biomarkers is only the first step. After that, you have to find the best DHEA supplements to take. 

So what are the best DHEA supplements on the market? 

LF DHEA

MyLifeForce has a proprietary DHEA supplement which is at the top of my list in large part because it has multiple ingredients that are all designed to improve the efficacy of one another and because it can be assigned as part of your overall health plan, a supplement that you take after completing your biomarker analysis to confirm your legitimate need as part of a membership that provides biomarker testing after you take it as well so you can always monitor how well it’s working.

Most DHEA supplements contain a single ingredient to help your body. MyLifeForce’s proprietary DHEA supplement includes:

1. DHEA
2. Pregnenolone
3. 7-Keto DHEA 

These three ingredients lead to a holistic hormone balance, weight loss support, improved immune function, and better sexual health. 

I like this particular supplement because it doesn’t just have one key ingredient. The most effective way to improve your hormonal health is not just with DHEA alone but with a combination of DHEA and pregnenolone. Pregnenolone helps create DHEA in the body, so having both in the same supplement means you set your body up to create more DHEA naturally. 

It also comes with the 7-keto DHEA which is a metabolite of DHEA that has a lot of metabolic benefits. 

The LF DHEA supplement contains 10mg of DHEA, 5mg of 7-Keto DHEA, and 15mg of Pregnenolone. You’re instructed to take a specific number of capsules in the morning with your first meal to help boost the effects it has on your metabolism. Alternatively, you can take it before noon to help naturally mimic your circadian rhythm. 

Life Extension DHEA

Life Extension is a highly reputable supplement company. They provide micronized DHEA that has a high level of purity and undergoes third-party testing.

I really like that it is a pure product that has that third-party testing, but the downside is they don’t have any other ingredients, so you’re not getting the same type of benefit as you are from the LF DHEA. What’s more, for better or for worse, they only sell capsules at different milligrams, so you don’t get any type of biomarker service with that purchase, nor can you arrange for things like blood tests after you start taking their supplement to see how well it has worked.

Their guidelines suggest taking between one and three capsules only in the morning and getting serum blood tests around one month after you start using DHEA replacement therapy with this supplement.

Douglas Laboratories

Another reputable company for supplements is Douglas Laboratories. This company provides micronized DHEA hormone supplements; however, you can’t buy them directly from their website. You have to go through your practitioner, so in theory, you are getting some form of blood test to confirm your need for DHEA before you get your supplement. 

Like Life Extension, Douglas Laboratories provides the DHEA supplement in a micronized form so that the particle size is easier for your body to absorb, and you are directed to take between one or two capsules daily. However, one of their main selling points is the purity of the DHEA, but that means there aren’t other ingredients. 

Given that this is a highly reputable organization that provides supplements through practitioners, the upside is they have an entire page of references for their product data with a lot of strict manufacturing details. The downside is you have to get a reference code from your doctor. 

This is where resources like MyLifeForce come in handy because you can pay for those same tests out of pocket without having to wait, sometimes several months, before your doctor approves them, meaning you can get your DHEA supplement a lot sooner if you use a different provider.

Note: There’s no specific dosage cutoff that requires DHEA to become a prescription in the United States. The FDA regulates some prescription versions, but you can generally buy over-the-counter dietary supplements with dosages averaging between 25 and 50 mg. There is no information on the Douglas Laboratories website to indicate why you need to purchase their DHEA supplement through your healthcare provider. 

Pure Encapsulations

So, if you don’t want to go through your healthcare provider and you are looking for a lower dose of micronized DHEA, Pure Encapsulations is an over-the-counter supplement. 

This comes in 10 mg with a few other ingredients specifically for the casing, like rice hulls, hypoallergenic plant fiber, and a vegetarian capsule. But otherwise, there are no other ingredients, and you can buy this fast and easy supplement to help you with basic DHEA improvement. 

Fertinatal DHEA

If you are a woman looking for DHEA to help with infertility, then Fertinatal DHEA is another choice. This, too, comes in a micronized form to improve absorption. It undergoes purity tests by independent labs. 

The patented nutritional support formula says that it’s there to support ovarian health and, in particular, fertility for women with 25 mg of DHEA in each capsule. 

This clinical-grade supplement says that it only has five clean ingredients, and when you look more closely at the product description, you’ll see that those ingredients include rice flour, bamboo extract, hypomelos, and L-leucine.

These are exactly what the company claims they are: clean, simple ingredients. 

However, those other ingredients have to do with the capsule itself, and they don’t have to do with additional ingredients like Pregnenolone or 7-Keto DHEA. So that’s a bummer. 

If you look at the detailed information on ingredients and usage, there doesn’t seem to be any difference between this product and the purity or ingredients provided with Douglas Laboratories or even Life Extension. 

Summing Up

So what are the best DHEA supplements on the market?

1. LF DHEA: This is by far the best option because it includes a mixture of key ingredients that support your DHEA production and hormone balance, plus it comes with the option of biomarker tests beforehand to make sure you are getting the supplements you genuinely need.
2. Life Extension DHEA: This is one of the top recommendations for over-the-counter DHEA supplements, with pure DHEA being the only ingredient. 
3. Douglas Laboratories: This is a high-quality option that has no other ingredients beyond pure micronized DHEA, but you do have to go through your doctor to get it.
4. Pure Encapsulations: This is a low-dosage option if you want something like 10 mg that you can buy on Amazon.
5. Fertinatal DHEA: This is designed for women, theoretically there to help improve fertility, although admittedly it doesn’t have any particular ingredient that makes it stand out, it mostly just has a pink case and some feminine font.