Dehydroepiandrosterone for women in the peri- or postmenopausal phase.

Study answer

What this study found

DHEA did not improve quality of life. In the main pooled sensitivity analysis, the QoL effect was SMD 0.16, 95% CI -0.03 to 0.34, P = 0.10, across 8 studies and 287 women. Sexual function may improve slightly, but the effect was small and clinically uncertain: pooled SMD 0.19, 95% CI -0.01 to 0.40, P = 0.06, and after excluding one high-risk trial SMD 0.31, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.55, P = 0.01. DHEA was associated with more androgenic side effects, with OR 3.77, 95% CI 1.36 to 10.4, P = 0.01, while evidence for menopausal symptom relief remained inconsistent and there was little evidence it…

Study & population

Systematic review of 28 randomized trials in 1273 women in the peri- or postmenopausal phase, predominantly postmenopausal.

Intervention

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) was evaluated across oral, topical, and intravaginal regimens in randomized trials.

Key limitation

Evidence quality was moderate to low, and pooled results were affected by heterogeneity, especially for quality of life (I2 = 67% in one pooled analysis).

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Original abstract