DHEA and Testosterone: What the Research Says

DHEA is often sold as a natural testosterone booster and anti-aging supplement. So what does the research on DHEA and testosterone actually show? In short: the hormone changes are smaller and less consistent than the marketing suggests, and they rarely turn into more muscle or strength.

Summary

DHEA is a hormone your body makes and can partly convert into testosterone and estrogen. In young men, results on testosterone are mixed, and trials found no gain in muscle or strength. In older adults the effects are small and inconsistent, women tend to see a bigger testosterone rise than men, and DHEA is banned in tested sport.

What is DHEA?

DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone, also called prasterone) is a steroid hormone made mainly by your adrenal glands, the small glands that sit on top of your kidneys. Your body can turn DHEA into androstenedione (another hormone building block), which can then be converted into either testosterone or estrogen [1].

Blood levels of DHEA and its sulfated form, DHEA sulfate (DHEA-S), fall by roughly 80% between the ages of 25 and 75 [2]. That decline is the main reason DHEA is marketed as a way to “top up” hormones as you get older. DHEA supplements are widely sold, but Mayo Clinic notes that studies have often found its quality control to be low, so what’s in the bottle may not match the label [3].

Does DHEA raise testosterone in young men?

This is where most of the gym marketing is aimed, and the results are mixed at best.

• Brown 1999 (Iowa State University): In 10 young men, a single 50 mg dose raised androstenedione by about 150% within an hour, but didn’t change testosterone or estrogen. In a second part of the study, 19 young men did 8 weeks of weight training while taking either 150 mg of DHEA a day (on six of the eight weeks) or a placebo (a dummy pill). Free testosterone (the part not bound to proteins in the blood) and total testosterone didn’t change, and strength and lean body mass (everything except fat) rose by similar amounts in both groups [4].
• Ostojic 2010: In a randomized, double-blind trial (neither the players nor the researchers knew who got what), 20 young male soccer players took 100 mg of DHEA or a placebo daily for 28 days. Total testosterone, estradiol (the main form of estrogen) and DHEA-S rose compared with placebo, but body weight, body fat and muscle mass didn’t change [5].
• Liao 2013: 16 young men took 100 mg of DHEA or a placebo during 5 days of hard combined training. DHEA-S rose about 2.5-fold at first, and testosterone followed a similar pattern. The DHEA group reported less muscle soreness on some days and had a smaller rise in creatine kinase (a blood marker of muscle damage). This was a small, very short study [6].

Put together: in young men, DHEA sometimes nudges testosterone up and sometimes doesn’t. Even where testosterone rose (in the soccer study, and briefly in the training study), it didn’t translate into more muscle or less fat.

DHEA and testosterone in older adults

The idea of “replacing” DHEA makes more sense in older people, whose levels are naturally lower. Here’s what studies in older adults found.

• Morales 1998: In a small double-blind crossover trial (everyone took DHEA for 6 months and a placebo for 6 months, in random order) in men and women aged 50 to 65, 100 mg a day raised testosterone in the women to above the normal range for young women, but caused no detectable change in testosterone in the men. Even so, the men lost about 1 kg of fat and their knee and lower-back strength rose by about 14 to 15% compared with their starting point. Only 16 of the 19 volunteers finished [7].
• The DHEAge study (2000): 280 healthy adults in France aged 60 to 79 took 50 mg of DHEA or a placebo daily for a year. DHEA brought DHEA-S back to “young” levels and caused a small rise in testosterone and estradiol, mostly in women [8].
• Weiss 2009: In a randomized trial, 113 adults aged 65 to 75 took 50 mg of DHEA a day or a placebo for a year (plus vitamin D and calcium, which everyone in the study got). Among those taking DHEA, the free testosterone index (an estimate of the testosterone your body can actually use) and estradiol rose in the men. In the women, testosterone, estradiol and IGF-1 (a growth factor) rose [9].
• Nair 2006: One of the longest trials was a 2-year randomized, double-blind study of 144 older adults with low DHEA-S (87 men and 57 women; 56 took DHEA and the rest took testosterone or a placebo). DHEA had no significant effect on body composition, muscle strength, aerobic fitness, insulin sensitivity (how well the body responds to insulin) or quality of life [10].

A 2013 meta-analysis (a study that pools the results of many trials) looked at 25 placebo-controlled trials in 1,353 older men, followed for 36 weeks on average. DHEA was linked to a small drop in fat mass, but that link disappeared once the researchers accounted for the rise in testosterone and estradiol that DHEA caused. There was no effect on blood fats, blood sugar, bone health, sexual function or quality of life [11].

In women the hormone effect is clearer. A 2025 meta-analysis of 21 studies in postmenopausal women found DHEA raised testosterone by about 24 ng/dL (nanograms per deciliter, the usual blood test unit) and estradiol by about 8 pg/mL (picograms per milliliter) on average, with bigger rises at doses of 50 mg a day or more [12]. The results varied a lot between studies, though, so the average hides a wide range.

Does DHEA help build muscle or strength?

A couple of small trials are often quoted in DHEA’s favor. In the Morales trial described above, men’s strength rose while taking DHEA, without any training program [7]. And in a randomized, double-blind trial, 56 older women and men took DHEA or a placebo for 10 months, adding weight training for the last 4 months. DHEA alone for 6 months didn’t increase strength or thigh muscle size. But once they started lifting, the DHEA group gained more strength and thigh muscle than the placebo group [2].

The weight-training result hasn’t been repeated, and other trials are less encouraging. The 2-year Nair trial (without a training program) found DHEA didn’t improve strength [10], and in young men doing weight training, DHEA added nothing to their strength gains [4]. Memorial Sloan Kettering’s review notes that DHEA didn’t improve physical performance in older adults [1], and Mayo Clinic says most studies show DHEA has no effect on muscle strength in younger or older adults [3].

If you’re looking for proven ways to support muscle and strength, regular resistance training and enough protein are the place to start. For other popular “testosterone boosters,” see our reviews of D-aspartic acid, fenugreek and vitamin D.

Does DHEA slow aging?

Mayo Clinic says there’s little evidence to support DHEA’s anti-aging claims [3]. A few specific findings have turned up in trials, mostly in women:

• Skin: the DHEAge study reported better skin hydration, thickness, oil production and pigmentation, particularly in women [8].
• Bone: in the Weiss trial, bone mineral density (a measure of bone strength) in the spine rose by about 1.7% in the first year in women taking DHEA, but not in men. Hip bone density didn’t change [9].

These are modest changes from a handful of trials, not evidence that DHEA slows aging overall.

Side effects and safety

DHEA is a hormone, so it can cause hormone-type side effects. According to Mayo Clinic and Memorial Sloan Kettering:

• It may cause oily skin and acne, and unwanted, male-pattern hair growth in women [3].
• It might worsen mental health conditions and raise the risk of mania in people with mood disorders. Mania (an abnormally high, overexcited mood) has been reported with high doses [1, 3].
• High doses or long-term use might raise the risk of hormone-sensitive cancers such as prostate and breast cancer, though more research is needed. Don’t use it if you have a hormone-sensitive cancer [3]. A flare-up of prostate cancer has been reported with DHEA, and combining it with the breast cancer drug tamoxifen may make tamoxifen less effective [1].
• Don’t use DHEA if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding [3].
• It may interact with estrogen, testosterone, some antidepressants and the sleeping pill triazolam [3].

Placebo-controlled trials lasting one to two years didn’t find major harms [8, 10], but these studies weren’t large enough to rule out rarer problems like cancer. Mayo Clinic’s overall advice is to avoid this supplement [3].

DHEA is banned in sport

If you compete in a tested sport, DHEA is off the table. The World Anti-Doping Agency lists prasterone (DHEA) as an anabolic agent (a substance that can build muscle tissue) that’s prohibited at all times, in and out of competition [13]. The US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has also banned it [3]. Whether you can buy DHEA over the counter also depends on where you live, so check your local rules.

The bottom line on DHEA and testosterone

DHEA can be converted into testosterone, but in young men supplements raise it unreliably, if at all, and haven’t been shown to add muscle or strength. In older men, effects on testosterone are small; in women, testosterone rises more noticeably, which also brings side effects. A couple of small trials in older adults reported strength gains, but the finding hasn’t been repeated, and a longer trial found no strength benefit. With hormone-related risks, low quality control and a ban in sport, DHEA is a poor choice as a testosterone booster. If you’re worried about low testosterone, a blood test and a chat with your doctor is the better place to start.

This article is for general information only and isn’t medical advice. Talk to your doctor or another qualified health professional before starting a new supplement. See our medical disclaimer.

References

1. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dehydroepiandrosterone (About Herbs, Botanicals & Other Products). mskcc.org. Accessed November 2026.
2. Villareal DT, Holloszy JO. DHEA enhances effects of weight training on muscle mass and strength in elderly women and men. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2006;291(5):E1003–E1008. doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00100.2006
3. Mayo Clinic. DHEA. May 12, 2026. mayoclinic.org. Accessed November 2026.
4. Brown GA, Vukovich MD, Sharp RL, et al. Effect of oral DHEA on serum testosterone and adaptations to resistance training in young men. J Appl Physiol. 1999;87(6):2274–2283. doi:10.1152/jappl.1999.87.6.2274
5. Ostojic SM, Calleja J, Jourkesh M. Effects of short-term dehydroepiandrosterone supplementation on body composition in young athletes. Chin J Physiol. 2010;53(1):19–25. doi:10.4077/cjp.2010.amh090
6. Liao YH, Liao KF, Kao CL, et al. Effect of dehydroepiandrosterone administration on recovery from mix-type exercise training-induced muscle damage. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013;113(1):99–107 (published online 2012). doi:10.1007/s00421-012-2409-6
7. Morales AJ, Haubrich RH, Hwang JY, Asakura H, Yen SS. The effect of six months treatment with a 100 mg daily dose of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on circulating sex steroids, body composition and muscle strength in age-advanced men and women. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 1998;49(4):421–432. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2265.1998.00507.x
8. Baulieu EE, Thomas G, Legrain S, et al. Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), DHEA sulfate, and aging: contribution of the DHEAge Study to a sociobiomedical issue. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000;97(8):4279–4284. doi:10.1073/pnas.97.8.4279
9. Weiss EP, Shah K, Fontana L, Lambert CP, Holloszy JO, Villareal DT. Dehydroepiandrosterone replacement therapy in older adults: 1- and 2-y effects on bone. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89(5):1459–1467. doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.27265
10. Nair KS, Rizza RA, O’Brien P, et al. DHEA in elderly women and DHEA or testosterone in elderly men. N Engl J Med. 2006;355(16):1647–1659. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa054629
11. Corona G, Rastrelli G, Giagulli VA, et al. Dehydroepiandrosterone supplementation in elderly men: a meta-analysis study of placebo-controlled trials. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013;98(9):3615–3626. doi:10.1210/jc.2013-1358
12. He S, Lu K, Zhang L, Cao H, Tang X, Zhang X. Impact of DHEA supplementation on testosterone and estradiol levels in postmenopausal women: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials assessing dose and duration effects. Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2025;17(1):258. doi:10.1186/s13098-025-01770-0
13. World Anti-Doping Agency. The 2026 Prohibited List (in force from January 1, 2026). wada-ama.org