DHEA

DHEA, short for dehydroepiandrosterone, is the most abundant steroid hormone circulating in the human body — yet most of it is a precursor rather than an end-product. The body makes huge amounts of it in the adrenal cortex, then uses it as a versatile building block that can be converted into androgens or estrogens wherever they are needed. Think of DHEA as a stockpile of half-built sex-steroid parts kept on hand.

It is the chief adrenal androgen, produced mainly in the zona reticularis under ACTH control. Most DHEA circulates in its sulfated form, DHEA-S, which is stable and long-lived in the blood, making it a useful marker of adrenal androgen output. Peripheral tissues take up DHEA and convert it locally into more potent hormones according to their own enzyme makeup.

DHEA levels follow a striking life curve: very low in childhood, surging at adrenarche, peaking in the twenties, then declining steadily with age. This age-related fall has fueled marketing of DHEA as an anti-aging supplement, but the evidence for meaningful benefit in healthy people is weak, and unsupervised use can cause androgenic side effects.