Pregnenolone Dosage

An Introduction to Pregnenolone Dosage

Pregnenolone is a hormone that is used as a dietary supplement. Unlike medications (for which the standard doses have been well established in carefully designed studies), there is less information available for determining the best dose for dietary supplements, including pregnenolone.

 

Reasonable Pregnenolone Dosing

Although pregnenolone is available as a dietary supplement without a prescription, your healthcare provider may recommend a prescription "bioidentical" compounded pregnenolone. Just because your pregnenolone was obtained with a prescription from a pharmacy, it does not mean that it is an FDA-approved medication. Pregnenolone (in any form) has not been approved by the FDA: instead, it is regulated as a dietary supplement.

 

With FDA-approved medications, researchers establish the most effective and safest doses in special studies, known as dose-range studies. These studies are done early in the development of medications, long before they are ever approved. However, because dietary supplements do not need FDA approval, dose-range studies are rarely performed. Without such studies, only vague "trial and error" information is available.

 

A safe and effective pregnenolone dose has not been established for any use. Therefore, it is reasonable to follow the directions on the label of your particular pregnenolone product. If you develop any pregnenolone side effects, this may be a sign that your dose is too high, negatively affecting the balance of hormones in your body.

 

Some healthcare providers like to start with a standard pregnenolone dosage (which may vary from one provider to the next). He or she may adjust your dose based on your reported side effects or based on tests that measure the hormone levels in the body. However, it is not known if this is the best way to dose pregnenolone.