The most common reason for low DHEA is simply getting older. Your adrenal glands produce peak levels of this hormone around age 25, and production drops steadily from there, falling by roughly 95% by age 85. But aging isn’t the only explanation. Chronic stress, certain medications, and problems with the adrenal or pituitary glands can all drive DHEA levels lower than expected for your age.
Age Is the Biggest Factor
DHEA (and its more stable form, DHEA-S) follows a predictable arc over your lifetime. Production peaks in your mid-twenties, then declines steadily decade by decade. By age 70 to 80, levels typically sit at just 10% to 20% of what they were in young adulthood. This decline is so consistent that researchers use it as a marker of biological aging.
To put numbers on it: DHEA-S in men aged 18 to 29 normally ranges from 110 to 510 µg/dL, but by the 50s that window shrinks to 25 to 240 µg/dL. For women, the range drops from 45 to 320 µg/dL in the late teens and twenties down to 15 to 170 µg/dL in the 50s. So a result that looks “low” compared to a young person’s level could be perfectly normal for your age. The first step in interpreting your result is comparing it to the reference range for your specific age group and sex, not to a single universal cutoff.
Chronic Stress Suppresses DHEA
Your adrenal glands produce both cortisol (your primary stress hormone) and DHEA. Under short-term stress, both rise together. But when stress becomes chronic, the balance shifts. Cortisol stays elevated while DHEA production drops, creating a lopsided ratio that researchers increasingly view as a sign of prolonged physiological strain.
This pattern shows up consistently in studies of people under sustained pressure. Caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients, for example, have significantly lower DHEA-S levels and a higher cortisol-to-DHEA ratio compared to non-stressed controls. People who experienced bereavement within two months showed a similarly skewed ratio. In more advanced stages of chronic stress, the adrenal system’s responsiveness to any stressor appears to diminish altogether, a state sometimes described as the “exhaustion” phase of stress adaptation.
If your life has involved prolonged emotional, physical, or psychological strain, that history is relevant to your DHEA level. It’s not just about feeling stressed in the moment. The hormonal shift reflects months or years of accumulated demand on your adrenal system.
Medications That Lower DHEA
Corticosteroids are the most well-documented class of drugs that suppress DHEA. When you take synthetic versions of cortisol (like prednisone or dexamethasone), your brain senses the high cortisol levels and dials back its signals to the adrenal glands. Since those same signals drive DHEA production, your DHEA drops as a side effect. Research on dexamethasone showed that even very small doses, as low as 0.125 mg daily, were enough to significantly suppress DHEA-S in some people. Higher doses suppressed it in nearly all participants.
This matters if you’re taking corticosteroids for asthma, autoimmune conditions, or inflammatory diseases. Even inhaled or topical forms, at high enough doses over long enough periods, can affect adrenal hormone output. If you’ve been on corticosteroids and your DHEA-S came back low, the medication is a likely contributor.
Adrenal and Pituitary Problems
Your adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys and produce DHEA in response to a signal called ACTH, which comes from the pituitary gland at the base of your brain. A problem at either level can result in low DHEA.
In primary adrenal insufficiency (Addison’s disease), the adrenal glands themselves are damaged, often by autoimmune attack, and can’t produce adequate hormones. DHEA-S levels are characteristically low in this condition, alongside low cortisol. Symptoms tend to include profound fatigue, weight loss, low blood pressure, and sometimes darkening of the skin.
In secondary adrenal insufficiency, the problem is upstream. The pituitary gland doesn’t produce enough ACTH, so the adrenal glands never receive the signal to make cortisol or DHEA. This can result from pituitary tumors, head injuries, or long-term corticosteroid use that suppresses the pituitary. The symptoms overlap with primary insufficiency (fatigue, weakness, pallor) but skin darkening is absent.
A low DHEA-S level alone isn’t enough to diagnose either condition. Doctors typically measure baseline cortisol alongside DHEA-S, and sometimes run a stimulation test, to distinguish between normal age-related decline and genuine adrenal insufficiency.
Exercise and Lifestyle Connections
Physical activity appears to support healthier DHEA levels, particularly in older adults dealing with stress. Research from the University of Stirling found that older adults who spent at least one hour per week doing aerobic exercise had significantly higher average DHEA levels throughout the day compared to sedentary peers. More importantly, exercise seemed to buffer the negative effects of stress on the cortisol-to-DHEA ratio. People with high stress exposure who exercised regularly maintained a more balanced ratio than highly stressed sedentary individuals.
This doesn’t mean exercise is a cure for low DHEA, and the researchers noted that age was a confounding variable. But regular physical activity does appear to help preserve the hormonal balance that chronic stress disrupts.
What Your Test Actually Measures
If you had bloodwork done, your doctor almost certainly tested DHEA-S rather than DHEA itself. There’s a practical reason for this: DHEA fluctuates throughout the day, making a single blood draw unreliable. DHEA-S levels remain stable regardless of when the sample is taken, giving a more accurate snapshot. Menstruation can also affect results, so the test is most reliable when drawn about a week before or after a period.
When interpreting your result, context matters more than the number in isolation. A DHEA-S of 50 µg/dL would be low for a 25-year-old woman but well within normal range for a woman in her 50s. Your doctor should be comparing your result to age- and sex-matched reference ranges.
Should You Take DHEA Supplements?
DHEA is available over the counter in many countries, which makes it tempting to self-treat a low result. But the Endocrine Society recommends against routine DHEA supplementation, even for people with confirmed low levels from conditions like adrenal insufficiency, surgical menopause, or pituitary disorders. The reason is straightforward: there’s limited evidence that supplementation reliably improves symptoms, and no long-term safety data exist. DHEA converts into both estrogen and testosterone in the body, which means supplementing it can have unpredictable hormonal effects.
The more productive path is identifying why your DHEA is low. If it’s age-related, it’s a normal part of biology. If it’s stress-driven, addressing the source of chronic strain and increasing physical activity are more targeted interventions. If it’s medication-related, that’s a conversation about whether the dose or type of medication can be adjusted. And if adrenal or pituitary disease is suspected, the low DHEA-S is a clue pointing toward a condition that needs its own specific treatment.