Well, this is a puzzling article just written up in the New England
Journal of Medicine. I'm not sure whether I sent this to the
3Beta newsletter yet, but just in case I didn't, here it is:

It would seem that women with insufficient adrenal reserves should
be on cortisone rather than DHEA because DHEA would alert the
pituitary to shut down cortison production.

Comment are VERY welcomed gals!


http://diabetes.medscape.com/reuters/prof/1999/09/09.30/cl09309c.html


Dehydroepiandrosterone Replacement
Improves Well-Being in Women With
Adrenal Insufficiency


WESTPORT, Sep 30 (Reuters Health) - Women with adrenal
insufficiency who receive dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)
replacement therapy experience an improved sense of
well-being and sexuality, German researchers report in the
September 30th issue of The New England Journal of
Medicine.

Dr. Wiebke Arlt, of the Medical University Hospital in
Wuerzburg, Germany, and a multicenter German team followed
24 women with adrenal insufficiency. Each woman was
randomly assigned to receive either 50 mg of DHEA each day
or placebo for 4 months. After a 1-month washout period, the
women switched treatments.

At study entry, women had low serum concentrations of
DHEA, DHEA sulfate, androstenedione, testosterone and
dihydrotestosterone. DHEA replacement therapy boosted these
measures into the normal or low-normal range, according to the
report. Administration of DHEA also significantly decreased
serum concentrations of sex hormone-binding globulin, total
cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

DHEA replacement also improved women's scores on several
measures of well-being, the researchers report. These
improvements were apparent after 4 months of treatment, but
not after 1 month, Dr. Arlt's team notes.

Likewise, DHEA was associated with an improvement in
sexuality, including frequency of sexual thoughts and fantasies,
sexual interest and sexual satisfaction. Improvements in sexual
satisfaction occurred after 4 month of treatment.

The side effects of treatment were minor for the most part,
although one woman required a decrease to 50 mg every other
day due to hair loss, according to Dr. Arlt's team.

Dr. Arlt and colleagues attribute the beneficial effects of the
treatment protocol to "...a direct effect of
dehydroepiandrosterone on the nervous system, an increase in
peripheral androgen synthesis, or both."

Based on the findings, "...dehydroepiandrosterone should
become part of the hormone-replacement regimen in women
with adrenal insufficiency," they conclude.

The findings "...mark a new phase of replacement therapy for
patients with adrenal insufficiency," Dr. Wolfgang Oelkers, of
Klinikum Benjamin Franklin in Berlin, writes in an
accompanying editorial.

Even though patients only received 4 months of DHEA therapy,
"...it is now justifiable...to prescribe a daily dose of 25 to 50
mg of dehydroepiandrosterone as long-term treatment in
patients with adrenal insufficiency whose strength and
well-being are subnormal, provided that they are monitored for
breast or prostatic cancer," Dr. Oelkers concludes.

N Engl J Med 1999;341:1013-1020,1073-1074.