I consulted a good doctor to help me loose weight and gain energy and the results were great. I went on a high protein diet, feel better and lost about 20 lbs. He also put me on DHEA to get the metabolism to burn more fat and speed up. It worked, except that after a while, the hormonal balance was off and I felt some symptoms like hot flashes, which did not really please me. He advised me to get on Pregnenolone to have the same "good" effects without the hormonal "surcharge" the DHEA can cause. But it seems that the Pregnenolone was not as "neutral" as he said it was. Anyway, after a while of trial and error, the balance came back and I was fine. Till lately, I had gained a little bit of weight and wanted to get it off. I started the DHEA again, at very small doses but my nice hormonal balance got disturbed. At this point, I am off the DHEA and trying again to reestablish some kind of balance. I have hotflashes and nightsweats. In the past, I could more or less feel if there was too much oestrogen (breats tenderness) or too little (hotflashes). Which makes me think that at this point, there is too little. But the creams are hard to control and I am not sure if I am overdoing on one or the other....My question is: how does the DHEA work on hormones? If it goes into the path of the oestrogen as the doctors say, then I should be high on oestrogen and low on progesterone, right? But progest people say say that when hotflashes occur, a little bit of oestrogen cream will calm it down and make me go back to sleep (yes?). So?????? Has anybody dealt with this before? I know it is not simple. I appreciate your input.