DHEA

What you should know before using

Allergies

Tell your doctor if you have ever had any unusual or allergic reaction to medicines in this group or any other medicines. Also tell your health care professional if you have any other types of allergies, such as to foods dyes, preservatives, or animals. For non-prescription products, read the label or package ingredients carefully.

Pediatrics

Androgens may cause children to stop growing. In addition, androgens may make male children develop too fast sexually and may cause male-like changes in female children

Geriatric

When older male patients are treated with androgens, they may have an increased risk of enlarged prostate (a male gland) or their existing prostate cancer may get worse. For these reasons, a prostate examination and a blood test to check for prostate cancer is often done before androgens are prescribed for men over 50 years of age. These examinations may be repeated during treatment.

Androgens are not recommended during pregnancy. When given to pregnant women, the medicine has caused male features to develop in female babies.

Breast Feeding

Use is not recommended in nursing mothers, since androgens may pass into the breast milk and may cause unwanted effects in the nursing baby, such as premature (too early) sexual development in males and development of male features in female babies.

Drug Interactions

Using medicines in this class with any of the following medicines is not recommended. Your doctor may decide not to treat you with a medication in this class or change some of the other medicines you take.

• Bupropion

Using medicines in this class with any of the following medicines is usually not recommended, but may be required in some cases. If both medicines are prescribed together, your doctor may change the dose or how often you use one or both of the medicines.

• Acenocoumarol
• Anisindione
• Dicumarol
• Lovastatin
• Paclitaxel
• Paclitaxel Protein-Bound
• Phenindione
• Phenprocoumon
• Simvastatin
• Warfarin

Other Interactions

Certain medicines should not be used at or around the time of eating food or eating certain types of food since interactions may occur. Using alcohol or tobacco with certain medicines may also cause interactions to occur. Discuss with your healthcare professional the use of your medicine with food, alcohol, or tobacco.

Other Medical Problems

The presence of other medical problems may affect the use of medicines in this class. Make sure you tell your doctor if you have any other medical problems, especially:

• Breast cancer (in males) or
• Prostate cancer—Androgens can cause growth of these tumors.

• Breast cancer (in females)—Androgens may cause high calcium levels in the blood to become worse.

• Diabetes mellitus (sugar diabetes)—Androgens can increase or decrease blood sugar levels. Careful monitoring of blood glucose should be done.

• Edema (swelling of face, hands, feet, or lower legs) or
• Kidney disease or
• Liver disease—These conditions can be worsened by the fluid retention (keeping too much water in the body) that can be caused by androgens. Also, liver disease can prevent the body from removing the medicine from the bloodstream as fast as it normally would. This could increase the chance of side effects occurring

• Enlarged prostate—Androgens can cause further enlargement of the prostate.

• Heart or blood vessel disease—Androgens can make these conditions worse because androgens may increase blood cholesterol levels. Also, androgens can cause fluid retention (keeping too much water in the body), which also can worsen heart or blood vessel disease.