“DHEA supplements improve energy and well-being in healthy older adults.”
DHEA supplements do not reliably improve energy or well-being in healthy older adults.
For healthy older adults, DHEA is unlikely to give you more energy or a better sense of well-being, and it carries real hormone side effects. A hormone level that falls with age is not by itself a reason to replace it.
If you feel tired or low most days, see your doctor to look for the cause before trying a hormone supplement.
Safety note: DHEA acts like a hormone and can raise androgen (male hormone) levels. It can cause oily skin, acne and unwanted male-pattern hair growth in women. Do not use it if you have a hormone-sensitive cancer; high doses or long-term use might raise the risk of these cancers. It may worsen mood disorders and raise the risk of mania. It should not be used during pregnancy or breastfeeding, and it should not be combined with estrogen or testosterone. Taken with certain antidepressants, it may cause manic symptoms.
Talk to a healthcare professional if: you have or have had a hormone-sensitive cancer, you have a mood disorder such as depression or a condition that causes mania, you take estrogen, testosterone or an antidepressant, or you are pregnant or breastfeeding and are thinking about DHEA.
One small early trial reported that people felt better on DHEA, but a two-year trial in older adults and a Cochrane review of 28 trials in menopausal women found no real improvement in quality of life. Confidence is moderate because the larger trials point the same way, but they were still modest in size and mostly in people with low DHEA or in women.
DHEA supplements do not reliably improve energy or well-being in healthy older adults. One small early trial reported people felt better, but larger and longer trials found no improvement in quality of life.
In a 1994 trial, 13 men and 17 women aged 40 to 70 took 50 mg of DHEA or a placebo for three months each, and most said they felt better physically and mentally while on DHEA. Later trials did not confirm this. A 2006 two-year trial gave DHEA or a placebo to 87 older men and 57 older women with low DHEA levels: DHEA raised blood levels but did not improve body composition, fitness, strength, blood sugar control or quality of life. A 2015 Cochrane review of 28 trials in 1,273 menopausal women found DHEA did not improve quality of life, while it did raise the chance of acne and other male-hormone side effects. A 2014 review of 23 trials in postmenopausal women found no clear effect on weight, cholesterol, blood sugar or bone density; it did not measure energy or well-being.
- Morales AJ, Nolan JJ, Nelson JC, Yen SS. Effects of replacement dose of dehydroepiandrosterone in men and women of advancing age. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 1994;78(6):1360-1367. DOI: 10.1210/jcem.78.6.7515387. PMID: 7515387
- Nair KS, Rizza RA, O'Brien P, et al. DHEA in elderly women and DHEA or testosterone in elderly men. New England Journal of Medicine. 2006;355(16):1647-1659. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa054629. PMID: 17050889
- Scheffers CS, Armstrong S, Cantineau AE, Farquhar C, Jordan V. Dehydroepiandrosterone for women in the peri- or postmenopausal phase. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2015;(1):CD011066. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD011066.pub2. PMID: 25879093. PMCID: PMC10662543
- Elraiyah T, Sonbol MB, Wang Z, et al. Clinical review: the benefits and harms of systemic dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in postmenopausal women with normal adrenal function: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2014;99(10):3536-3542. DOI: 10.1210/jc.2014-2261. PMID: 25279571. PMCID: PMC5393492
- Mayo Clinic Staff. DHEA. Mayo Clinic. May 12, 2026