DHEA for poor responders: can treatment be justified in the absence of evidence?

Abstract

Evidence-based medicine is the application of Science to the practice of healthcare, leading to reproducibility and transparency in the Science supporting healthcare practice. Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) has been proposed as a treatment for improving ovarian reserve in poor responding women undergoing IVF. However, there is a lack of evidence of its effectiveness as data is derived mostly from retrospective studies and one questionable randomized trial. DHEA appears to be devoid of major side effects, however, due lack of data supporting its effectiveness, its wide scale use cannot be currently recommended.