This week–

“AT THIS point I’ll try anything

I can to have a child,” says Emma*,

a 38-year-old teacher from

London. Emma faces a similar

problem to many women: her

ovaries produce too few ripe eggs

for doctors to extract and use for

in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). She is

also one of a number of women

undergoing IVF who is self-

medicating with a supplement

called dehydroepiandrosterone

(DHEA) in an attempt to beat the

biological clock.

The hope is that this

experimental treatment could

improve the chances of older

women using their own eggs to

conceive with IVF instead of

resorting to donors. Reports of

early success in preliminary

studies have prompted women in

the UK to source DHEA from the

US, where it is classified as a

“dietary supplement” and sold

without a prescription. Some

fertility experts, however, warn

that it is too early to say whether

DHEA offers a genuine benefit to

women undergoing IVF and note

that its side effects include acne

and excess growth of body hair.

Others speculate that high doses

could increase breast cancer risk.

Researchers at the Center for

Human Reproduction in New York

began exploring the effects of

DHEA in 2004, when they learned

that an older patient of theirs had

been taking the drug without

telling them. Desperate to conceive

a child using her own eggs, the then

42-year-old woman had scoured

the scientific literature and found

a very small trial suggesting that

DHEA could improve ovarian

function (Human Reproduction,

vol 15, p 2129).

The number of eggs doctors

could extract from her jumped

from one per cycle of IVF to 19

over the course of seven cycles.

“We were kind of stunned,” says

Norbert Gleicher, the doctor who

treated her.

Since then, Gleicher has been

advising some of his patients aged

40 and above to take three doses

of DHEA every day. Each 25-

milligram dose costs under $1.

At a meeting of the American

Society for Reproductive

Medicine in Washington DC last

week, Gleicher’s colleague David

Barad presented data from a

pilot study involving 27 women,

eight of whom had received

DHEA. Women taking the drug

produced more eggs and had

twice as many high-quality

embryos suitable for transfer into

the uterus per cycle. The use of

DHEA appears to have helped

boost the pregnancy rate from

11 per cent to 23 per cent among

patients aged 40 and above in

Gleicher’s clinic. Other clinics are

beginning to focus research

efforts on DHEA, too.

It is a hormone produced

naturally by the body, where it is

converted into the sex hormones

oestrogen and testosterone.

Exactly how it influences egg

maturation is unclear. According

to Barad, it appears to induce a

form of polycystic ovary syndrome

(PCOS), a condition in which high

levels of the hormone cause a

“backlog” of ripening eggs that

fail to release naturally. Women

taking DHEA as part of IVF

treatment avoid the negative

symptoms linked to PCOS, such

as weight gain, perhaps because

doctors harvest the ripe eggs each

month, Barad says.

Janet Hall, a reproductive

endocrinologist at the

Massachusetts General Hospital

in Boston, believes the studies so

far suggest DHEA warrants

further investigation. “It’s very

tantalising data,” she says, but

stresses that large, placebo-

controlled studies are needed to

assess the true impact of the drug.

Gleicher is worried that women

may take DHEA without consulting

their doctors: “We urge women

not to do it on their own.” ●

*Name changed to protect privacy

Dietary supplement boosts IVF hopes

SOUNDBITES

‹ That may be all beautiful but we might cook seven people on the way down.›

Roger Handberg, a space policy

expert at the University of Central

Florida at Orlando, on NASA’s decision

to press ahead with last Tuesday’s

launch of its space shuttle Discovery,

despite damage to the thermal

protection shield (The Guardian,

London, 22 October)

‹ We feel that with the ground sinking and the sea water rising, Bangkok will be under sea water in the next 15 to 20 years – permanently.›

Smith Dharmasaroja, chair of the Thai

government’s Committee of National

Disaster Warning Administration, on

gloomy prospects for Thailand’s capital

(Associated Press, 22 October)

‹ We left no stone unturned. If there had been a link between emotional state and survival, we would have found it.›

Psychiatrist James Coyne, lead author

of a study published in Cancer that

shows a patient’s emotions have no

bearing on the progression of their

disease or their survival (The Boston Globe online, 22 October)

‹ There would have been more casualties had the villagers not chased them away.›

Dipu Mark, a conservationist, on the

death of six elephants that “went

beserk” and electrocuted themselves

after drinking rice beer and uprooting

an electricity pole in Chandan Nukat,

a village in Meghalaya state, India

(Associated Press, 23 October)

‹ The more disorders older adults have, the worse they sleep.›

Sonia Ancoli-Israel of the University of

California, San Diego, unveiling results

that show that illness rather than age is

what causes disturbed sleep in old

people (NYTimes.com, 23 October)

ROXANNE KHAMSI

12 | NewScientist | 27 October 2007 www.newscientist.com

–Any help appreciated–

“Fertility researchers learned

that an older patient of theirs

had been taking the drug

without telling them”

PUN

CHST

OCK

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