Pregnenolone for Men on TRT: Do You Actually Need It?
Pregnenolone is one of those niche topics in hormone optimization that almost nobody talks about, but a lot of guys ask me about. Spoiler up front, there's no definitive answer here. Some men benefit a lot, some men feel nothing, and some don't need it at all. I want to walk you through the science, my own experience, and help you decide if it's worth experimenting with.
What Pregnenolone Actually Does
Pregnenolone is known as the mother hormone. It's the first steroid your body produces in the hormone cascade, synthesized from cholesterol in your adrenal glands, gonads, and brain.
Here's the simple version. Cholesterol becomes pregnenolone. Pregnenolone then becomes progesterone and DHEA. From there you get testosterone, cortisol, and estrogen.
Without pregnenolone, your body can't produce any of these downstream hormones. This is also one reason I'm not a fan of statins. They block cholesterol, which is the raw material for all of this.
Pregnenolone as a Neurosteroid
Beyond being a precursor, pregnenolone is active in the brain itself. Your brain makes it locally, with high concentrations in specific regions.
It supports myelination, protects neurons, and improves synaptic function. It also modulates GABA and NMDA receptors, which helps with memory and learning. For me, this is where I feel the biggest benefit. I'm noticeably sharper cognitively when I take it.
One of pregnenolone's most important derivatives is allopregnenolone, which is synthesized from progesterone. Allopregnenolone activates GABA-A receptors and produces calming, anti-anxiety effects. Low levels show up in people with depression and PTSD. Boosting it produces antidepressant and anxiolytic effects.
If you've been paying attention to guys on TRT, you'll notice a lot of them report new anxiety or existential angst they didn't have before. There's a real reason for that, and I'll get to it.
How TRT Affects Upstream Hormones
When you start testosterone therapy, exogenous testosterone creates a negative feedback loop. Your pituitary stops releasing LH and FSH. Your testes stop producing their own testosterone, and they also stop producing pregnenolone.
Your adrenal glands keep making pregnenolone independently. They run on ACTH, not LH, so TRT doesn't shut them down. The adrenals provide the majority of circulating pregnenolone.
But testicular pregnenolone production basically stops on TRT. For some men this loss is minor. For others, it's enough to drop levels into a range where they feel it.
This is the whole backfilling concept. Supplement the upstream hormones that get suppressed when the HPT axis goes quiet. The argument against it is that the adrenals usually cover the difference. Sometimes that's true. Sometimes it isn't.
Why TRT Can Affect Your Mood
Progesterone drops on TRT because testicular production stops. Lower progesterone means lower allopregnenolone. Lower allopregnenolone can mean more anxiety, worse stress tolerance, and worse sleep.
This is a real mechanism behind why some guys feel more anxious on TRT than off it. It's not the testosterone itself causing problems. It's what got suppressed alongside the natural testosterone production.
Signs You Might Benefit
Brain fog, memory issues, trouble recalling words. Persistent fatigue and reduced stamina. Low mood, irritability, anxiety, poor sleep. Joint aches, dry skin, reduced vitality.
These symptoms are nonspecific. They overlap with plenty of other hormonal issues. But if your testosterone is optimized and these are still hanging around, pregnenolone is worth considering.
In my own case, I didn't have these symptoms in a pronounced way before supplementing. After adding it, my cognitive sharpness improved, my mood got better, and my sleep got noticeably better on my Oura ring data.
My Specific Reason for Using It
I've had a lot of concussions from playing football. Before I ever started TRT, my LH and FSH were already low because my pituitary took damage. That's common for guys with head trauma history.
So my brain wasn't going to produce optimal pregnenolone anyway. I also don't tolerate HCG well, so that route wasn't great for me. Pregnenolone supplementation gave me the upstream support without the HCG side effects.
If you've had head trauma, blast trauma, or PTSD, I think pregnenolone is more likely to help you than not. Contact sport athletes and veterans especially.
What the Research Shows
There are no large trials specifically in men on TRT. But the supporting research is solid.
A 4x increase in pregnenolone produces a 4x increase in progesterone, a 5x increase in allopregnenolone, and a 16% increase in DHEA. It does not raise testosterone, free testosterone, cortisol, or estradiol in any meaningful way.
Clinical studies have shown improvements in schizophrenia and bipolar depression, anxiety reduction with reduced amygdala activation, and better emotional regulation. Studies from the 1940s and 50s showed reduced fatigue and better performance under stress.
If you're not on testosterone therapy, pregnenolone won't raise your testosterone. Don't take it for that.
How to Dose It
Start with 5 to 10 mg per day. You can get 5 mg tablets on Amazon for cheap. That's where I get mine.
I take 10 mg at night before bed. Sleep quality got noticeably better, both subjectively and on my Oura data.
You can go up to 25 mg if needed, but I don't think most guys need to go higher. The mega-dose studies (100 to 500 mg) were for psychiatric patients, not for hormone optimization.
Get bloodwork before you start. Target the mid to high normal range. Expect DHEA and progesterone to bump up. Testosterone and estradiol shouldn't change. Track memory, mood, energy, and sleep.
Risks
If you take too much you can get jitteriness, insomnia, headaches, mood swings, and hormone imbalances. Too much progesterone can tank your libido and make you sleepy. These problems mostly show up at the 100+ mg range. At 5 to 10 mg you're not going to run into much.
When You Don't Need It
If you're feeling great on TRT alone, don't add it. You don't need another supplement just to add a supplement.
Don't take it to boost testosterone. Won't work.
If your bloodwork is fine and your mood and sleep are dialed, leave it alone. The bar for adding it should be documented low levels or actual symptoms that haven't resolved.
My Take
Think of pregnenolone as a supporting actor. Testosterone is the star. If the show is working, don't add cast members.
For me, 10 mg before bed makes a noticeable difference in sleep and mood. Given my concussion history and the fact that I don't use HCG, it makes sense for my situation. I'd be fine without it. I just feel a bit better with it.
If you're considering it, try 5 to 10 mg for four to eight weeks. If you notice nothing, drop it. If you notice sharper cognition, better mood, or better sleep, it's a cheap supplement to keep in the protocol. Your discretion matters here. Your doctor can't dial this in for you. You have to be willing to experiment on yourself.
Full transcript click any paragraph to jump video
Hey, everybody. This is Hunter Williams. I hope you were doing amazing wherever you are out in the world. Today's video is going to be a little bit more of a niche or niche topic. Probably say niche if you're from the South like me, but a niched topic on men's testosterone therapy. And I think most of this probably applies to women too. In fact, I know it does, topic that I get a lot of questions about, but I think it's important to cover because when we look at hormone replacement therapy,
obviously we have testosterone for women. We have estradiol and progesterone, But there's a of these ancillary compounds that we, some cases don't need, and some kids do need to supplement with to maximize the effectiveness of our hormone, replacement, therapy. And today I'm going to be talking about pregnenolone supplementation more so in men, although I The gist of the argument applies to women as well, but they usually will supplement with progesterone, which isn't the same as pregnenolone.
But a lot of times we'll have the, same effects for the intended purposes of, the outcome of what we want to do today. I want, to walk through why or why not a man that's on testosterone therapy would want. To supplement, with pregnelone and why that would be important and, why you actually might not need it. Spoiler alert, there's no definitive answer. So I'm not going to get to the end of this video and tell you, you have to have pregnenolone or you should never have Pregnenone. I think it's something that you to decide for yourself. And I would encourage every guy to experiment with if you feel called to after this.
The great thing about it is it over the counter supplement. You can get it on Amazon. That's where I get mine. you can also get a compounding pharmacy too. but I just get mine off of Amazon. It's very cheap and very affordable. And for me, it's had some pretty good effects. That's why I want to do this video is because I was always of the opinion, ah, I don't need that. But I actually experimented with it and it did a lot of good things for and I'll talk about why. I think in my case it would be helpful. Again, a very niche topic today, but think it is relevant.
For all of us in the hormone optimization game, It can be something that I going into the future just to be conscious of and to kind of have as a tool in your tool belt if you experience some of the things that I'm going to discuss today. As always, thank you guys so much for all the support. I have the best audience in the world, the most supportive audience. check those out, make sure you're signed up for the email list. Definitely seems to be a lot of censorship ratcheting up these days.
Please make you on the e-mail list because if I continue to get platforms deleted off of social media, that's the one place that you'll be able to find me and be in touch with me. And again, I do send out emails during the week. Usually they're just summaries of my videos or musings on topics in this world that I will write up short summories of, and most people find it helpful. Again, make sure you're on the email list. That's the best place to find me because who knows how much longer across these platforms we'll have the ability to publish information on,
but just know that there will always be a place on publishing information. Probably it's not going to get as much reach, being on that email. List is the. Best place. To do that. And again, I don't say that because I'm trying to sell you anything. Again. If you do just put it into a folder, like I know a lot of people just sign up and they put into. A folder and then they will read them all once per week. That's it. I'm going to jump into this, but thank you guys so much today. Let's talk about pregnenolone supplementation for men. All right, I'm Hunter Williams. And today we're going to talk all about pregnenolone supplementation in men on testosterone therapy. Basically, pregnolol is the mother hormone.
So we are just going go around the science of pregenol, what it does, why we may use it, and does it actually help? And then who would be a good candidate for it? and then Who would not? Because in a lot of cases, i don't think you necessarily need it. But just to give an overview, because you kind of understand and this is one of those things, it's a very, very niche subtopic. and a lotta times it is not really understood. But basically, pregnenolone is known as the mother hormone. It is the first steroid produced in the body's hormone cascade. Its basically synthesized from cholesterol in adrenal glands, gonads in brain, and also serves as essential precursor to virtually every major steroidal
hormone in body, which is pretty cool. Basically, we have the cycle where you have cholesterol, that's the building blocks. Another reason you should never use a statin because it inhibits a lot of this cholesterol which we then use to make our hormones. Basically cholesterol turns into pregnenolone, and then we had pregenolones turning into progesterone and DHEA. And then, the end products which are testosterone, cortisol and estrogen. And without pregnenolone, your body cannot produce all these subsequent hormones. And the enzyme P450SCC converts cholesterol into pregnanolones, which then branches into multiple pathways that produce androgen,
estrogens, glucocorticoids, and mineralocorticoids. It's a mouthful. But basically, let's look at the steroid, steroido genesis pathway. We have the Delta four pathway, which is pregnenolone to progesterone, to cortisol to aldosterone and then ultimately to androstenedione and testosterone. Then we have a Delta five pathway which has pregnitolones to 17 alpha hydroxypregnitoline which then goes to DHEA and androstenedyol. So these parallel pathways demonstrates pregnenolone's central role in hormone production and understanding the cascade is crucial for grasping how testosterone
therapy might affect upstream hormones. And we'll get into what that actually means. But when we look at pregnolones as a neuro-steroid and beyond serving as hormone precursor, preglonone functions as an active neuro steroid without direct effect, excuse me, with direct effects on brain function. The brain synthesizes pregenolono locally with high concentrations in specific regions. We have neural protection, so it enhances myelination, it protects neurons and improves synaptic functioning through direct neuro steroid activity.
It also helps with cognitive enhancement, improves memory and learning by modulating GABA and NMDA receptors, which promotes neuroplasticity. And in my case, this is where I see the most benefit of pregnenolome. I think from a mental standpoint, I know to some slightly more cognitively clear when I use it. And I'll talk about why I think that is. Then we have neurotransmitter modulation. It basically influences multiple neurotransemitters, which supports overall brain health and mental activity. When we look at things like dopamine serotonin, these things can sometimes in guys on testosterone therapy, kind of get out of whack.
We also have allopregnenolone, which is a calming neuro steroid. And one of pregnenone's most important derivatives is allo pregnanone which has synthesized from progesterone. Allopregnenolone powerfully activates GABA-A receptors, which produces natural calming and anti-anxiety effects. And if you're paying attention and following along, you will notice that guys on testosterone a lot of times will report this anxiety or this existential angst that they may not have had before testosterone therapy.
I'm going to talk a little bit about that. but higher allopregnenol levels correlate with reduced anxiety and improve stress resilience. And low levels have been observed in depression and PTSD patients while boosting allo-pregnant alone produces anti-anxiety and antidepressant effects. I've actually talked to chemists, I would actually like to follow up with a guy that I know about this. he probably is not watching this, I know he's not, but they have produced an allopregnenol spray that you can do a nasal spray into your nose and it actually
is one of the best anxiolytics and best antidepressant compounds you use and is obviously a bioidentical hormone. But basically after high dose pregnenolone therapy, which we're not talking about high-dose today, but there was a five X increase in allopregnenone, Which eventually leads to people that a lot of times have psychiatric issues to normalize. And pregnetolones supplementation can significantly increase allopergneolome which potentially provides mood stabilizing benefits for those with deficiencies. Now, what I want to do is rewind for a second and talk about how testosterone therapy impacts this upstream hormone production in the body.
Basically testosterone, therapy introduces exogenous testosterone which alters the bodies hormonal feedback loops. From everything from the pituitary to drastically reducing LH and FAC production, which consequently reduces testicular steroid production. Now, this does not mean the testosterone therapy is bad. In a lot of cases, it is, in my opinion, the only remedy to get a guy what he needs to do, but we have to also understand what's going on in the body when we're doing this. Basically, we look at normal testosterone production, so the pituitary releases LH and FSH and then the testes produce testosterone and other steroids.
When we start testosterone therapy, exogenous testosterone is introduced, thus creating a negative feedback loop. And what happens is because of this exogenous supplementation, LH and FSH production drops, therefore testicular steroid production ceases. And then we have a new testosterone equilibrium, equilibrium where testosterone is optimized, but upstream hormones are potentially affected. Now you can counter this with HCG supplementation because that will tell the pituitary to make more LH, which then goes to the latex cells.
And then we get this hormone feedback loop going. That's why some doctors would say that HCGs mandatory because without it, you're not getting this. I don't think that's the case and I think we can use supplementations to circumvent those things. A lot of times guys just don' feel good with HGG alongside their testosterone. Let's look at the adrenal production of pregnenolone versus the testicular production. Like we said, it's made into in these different areas. So the adrenoproduction of progneolones operates independently of our testosterone levels.
It continues under ACTH regulation. it provides the majority of circulating prognolol and it is not affected by testosterone therapy. So the adrenal glands maintain their pregnenome production while on TRT as they operate under a different regulatory system than testes so they're really not being affected by this exogenous testosterone. However, we can look at testicular production which requires the stimulation of a luteinizing hormone or LH from the pituitary gland And we do have pregnenolone that is produced as a result of that happening.
And then the contribution obviously drops dramatically on TRT. So we're not getting this contribution of pregnololome from testicular production that it's happening when we have LH. Without Lh, testiculopregnenone ceases, and for some men this loss may be minor. For others, it could lead to measurably lower levels, which could have a substantial effect. And then if we look at the backfilling concept in hormonal optimization circles, back-filing refers to supplementing upstream hormones like pregnenolone and DHEA. D HEA is a separate conversation.
I will likely make a video about that. But it kind of goes and is lumped in the same category as pregnenolone supplementation. But these upstream hormones might be lower due to the HPT axis suppression. And the goal is restoring a more natural hormone balance that we wouldn't have. But the question is, is it still going to be significant enough to make a difference in practice? The theory is that TRT provides testosterone but bypasses precursor hormones.
Supplementing pregnenolone restores the full hormone cascade. Some clinicians argue that adrenal glands produce sufficient upstream hormones, making supplementation unnecessary without documented deficiency. And a lot of times I think they're probably right. But the reality is that individual responses vary widely and some men benefit significantly and others notice no difference or experience side effects. Let's look at the downstream hormone effects on TRTs. We have DHEA, mostly adrenal produced, largely unaffected by TRT, may decline with age regardless.
Some doctors recommend supplementation in older men that have low D-H-E-A-S levels just naturally regardless of testosterone. With progesterone, which is different than pregnenolone but testicular production drops on TRT, adrenals continue producing some lower progestorone may reduce allopregnenalone which potentially affects mood and anxiety. I do think this is happening in a lot of cases with men that are using testosterone. is that progesterone being lower is affecting their mood.
We also have cortisol, which is regulated by stress and ACTH, not testosterone. TRT doesn't suppress cortisol production, and adrenal pregnenolone continues feeding cortisol since this is needed. Then we have allopregnenole, Which is derived from progeterrone, And it may decline if TRR reduces progeserol levels. Lower levels could manifest as increased anxiety or poor stress tolerance,which I think you do see in a lot of guys,and I do think this Not in all cases, but in a lot of cases I think it is responsible. I wouldn't say in my case that I was someone with severe anxiety or anything like that.
Maybe before testosterone therapy but not after. But I do notice a better mood with pregnenolone. What would signs of pregenolones look like? One, we're going to have cognitive issues, memory problems, brain fog, difficulty concentrating. Concentrating and trouble recalling words or names. Fatigue, persistent tiredness, slugginess, reduced stamina, easily exhausted, mood changes, low mood, apathy, irritability, anxiety, sleep problems. A lot of guys have sleep Actually, I think these usually come like six months once this process has really now been changed in the body and then we start
to see this play out in terms of the effects. Physical discomforts, we have joint aches, muscle pain, and skin changes. A lot of times it can cause dry skin, reduce skin vitality, or poor hydration. And again, these symptoms are nonspecific and could overlap with other hormonal imbalances, but if testosterone is optimized and symptoms persist, it could be a pregnenolone thing. I think at me, I wouldn't say that I had these systems at least pronounced anyway before I supplemented with pregenolones. And then when I introduced it, I kind of noticed these things improve.
So I noticed my cognitive sharpness improved. I notice that my mood wasn't bad, but it was better after Pregnant Alone. And then for me, I think even with tracking on my aura ring, the sleep was way better with Pregation Alone and I just seemed to be more relaxed when I'm using PRegnantAlone, which I to a point is definitely a good thing. If we look at some of the research around pregnenolone supplementation, there's been no large trials specifically in men on TRT, but we do have several clinical studies on what it does. What we did get is a four times increase in pregnetolones results in a 4 times in progesterone, a 5 times increased in allopregnenerones,
and a 16% increase of DHEA. And so I think, okay, you have a guy on the TRTs, he has anxiety for no reason, or he would claim no region. Well, is it a progessorone deficiency that could be fixed with pregenolono? And also the increase in allopregnanolone that's going to come from the pregnenolones supplementation. Exogenous pregnanolol did not increase testosterone free testosterone cortisol or estradiol. So when we look at, is it affecting some of those things? It's not moving the needle. on those enough.
And I don't think for someone not on testosterone therapy, you're not going to raise your testosterone by taking pregnenolone. But there's also a significant elevation in neuroactive steroids, particularly allopregnenone, which supports brain function. We do see that time and time again, and that's in guys that are not testosterone on therapy. Clinical studies show improvements in schizophrenia and they were doing between 30 to 500 milligrams a day. I'll talk about dosing. You definitely don't need to go that high. Also improved depressive symptoms in randomized control trial with bipolar patients.
There was an anxiety reduction. So brain imaging showed reduced amygdala activation and lower anxiety levels and stress response. there's an enhanced prefrontal cortex engagement and better emotional regulation. Studies from the 1940s to 50s suggested pregnenolone could combat fatigue and improve productivity. Workers reported less fatigue, and better performance under stress while students showed improved endurance during strenuous exercise. And although these are really old, it just shows that we have a lot of data going back a long time on pregnanolones.
Thus, I don't think it would be something if you wanted to experiment with that you would necessarily need to get your panties in a line over or think that something bad is going to happen. Now, when we look at TRRT, a lot of specialists measure pregnenolone in TRT patients and if levels are low with accompanying symptoms, supplementation may be recommended. Case reports show improvements in men, but again, we don't have large scale trials on this. Other practitioners don's supplement it routinely and the patients feel good without it, adding extra hormones is seen as unnecessary. A lot people will say, you don' need that unless you have a deficiency to which I would just say get measured.
But also too, if you feel like there's room for improvement, I think the, The downside to supplementing, especially with just 10 milligrams, five to 10 milligram per day, is relatively low compared to the upside, in my opinion. Among many patients, pregnenolone has mixed results, many try it, but estimates suggest only around 10% continue long-term. And again, it could be one of those things. It's just an extra supplement that everyone has to throw in and they don't think it's worthwhile. But when we look at the benefits, we're going to have sharper cognition, better mood, more energy and better sleep quality. I'd say for me, just throwing in 10 milligrams of pregnenolone at night before bed has made a massive difference in my sleep.
Quality, I can track that on my aura ring, but subjectively it feels better. And the benefit typically occur when pregnololones was generally low to begin with and the levels are already healthy. Supplementation may not produce noticeable benefits. Another reason, and I'll go ahead and talk about this now in my case with the benefits of pregnenolome, If you know my story, you that I have a lot of concussions from playing football. My LH and FSH levels were low independent of testosterone therapy. Meaning that before I ever started testosterone, I had really low L H and FSH because my pituitary had been impacted.
And what was happening is that. I was not signaling to my testes enough L.H. and fsh to make testosterone. This is very common for guys that have concussion in their life. Thus, my theory around this is that naturally my brain isn't going to produce enough anyway, therefore I could benefit from pregnenolone, but I don't necessarily want to use HCG because I dont like how HC makes me feel. A lot of guys dont feel it, dont' like it. So in my case, that's where I saw the potential benefit and also reap some potential benefits.
I think when we look at just that downstream cascade of the pregnenolone to progesterone, to allopregnenone for having mood instability and calming effects. Some of the risks, if you take too much, you can get jitteriness and insomnia, headaches and dizziness, mood alterations, hormone imbalances, because if have too many progesterone, that can cause you to be sleepy or have low libido, also reduce libid and then cardiovascular effects. And again, I don't think those will kick in until you get into this like 100 milligrams per day range before you would really start to notice anything
like that. What do we do? Obviously, if you're concerned, get pregnenolone blood testing and you can document symptoms. And if, you have low levels, I would say if. You have normal levels that may not always be the best indicator because I think a lot of times if we look at pregenital levels. Okay. Well I'm on testosterone therapy. My testosterone is higher than most guys, but my pregnitolones is on the lower end of the range or the middle end Does it need to be higher because my testosterone's higher? I don't know the answer to that, chemically speaking, but one would think, okay, if my testosterone is higher, I do want my estradiol to a little bit higher
than the normal low end of the range. Thus my pregnenolone would be a bit a higher. Anyway, when I supplement, my levels are just slightly outside of range, So they're not really high. They're just maybe like 5% over the top in the reference range, which I think is fine given that my testosterone is a lot of times 20% Obviously get pregnenolone blood testing before starting. I always start with five to 10 milligrams a day. You can go up to 25 if you need.
But I say pregnenolone target the mid to high normal range. DHA should rise if it was previously low, because we're going to get a little bit of a bump in that. Expect a mild elevation in progesterone. Again, my progeterrone always sits a low high of the reference range, but again, I think when we look at testosterone and everything in relation to that, that you could argue that's totally fine. Testosterone and estriol probably are not going change. And then just monitor, your memory, mood, energy, and sleep quality are the biggest things to monitor.
And again, I do 10 milligrams. A lot of doctors will even say do like 25 or 50 milligrams, but you can get as low as like five milligram tablets off Amazon. And that's what I would do. I don't think you need to go up to a hundred milligrams again. When is pregnant alone warranted? Obviously if you have a documented deficiency, i think in a lot cases for guys that have mood problems that persist after starting testosterone therapy can definitely help, especially like on the anxiety or sleep side of things of like, existential angst or still feeling like the walls are caving in around you.
Pregnant alone can do a lot of good. I think older men with low DHEA, we could get into talking about supplementing with DHA in another video. And obviously too, I probably for someone from my background, whether it's head trauma, a history of head, trauma and veterans who have had a head history trauma or PTSD, pregnant alone probably is going to be better for them than not. It wasn't my experience. Again, everyone's going to be different, but I would say for people with severe anxiety or PTSD, it does help with that.
And I think for guys that have had head trauma or blast trauma, or whatever, which again, you're going look at contact sport athletes and military guys, the biggest groups of guys. That have that, I Think pregnening alone is good. At least it wasn' t my case, But if not, You might not need it. When is it not necessary? One, just because. So don't listen to this video and say, oh, I'm going to do pregnead alone because I think it's going be another thing that I need to add in and I want to make sure that taking 200 supplements a day. Don't do that. You don't need it to increase testosterone. So if you're not on testosterone therapy for whatever reason, you don' need to it increase your testosterone, it's not gonna do that.
If you'r feeling great on TRT alone, I don''t think you necessarily need. I you''re listening to this right now and you are like, hey, i'm on Testosterone. i feel great. im doing my protocols down in. And i wouldn't say like willy-nilly throw it in i would say really if there's documented case of low pregnant alone in blood work or if your mood has seemed to sour or just not where you want it be or sleep is not what you wanted to be i think it could benefit. And then just don't do high dosing. So when we're talking megadosing, that would be for cases of people like schizophrenia or bipolar.
That should only be in cases. And again, I just, don' think that woul even be something that I would ever even want to test out. But basically just to sum up, think of Pregnalon as a supporting actor in the hormone cast. Obviously testosterone is the star and you feel good and everything's good. You don't need to throw in another actor. But if you like in this symphony of everything going on in production of your hormones, if there is a room for improvement, especially around that sleep and mood component of it.
I think pregnenolone is great. Start at five or 10 milligrams, see how you feel. If you don't notice anything in four to eight weeks, I'd say you probably trash it, but in my case I did. Usually within like the first few days I noticed better sleep, and better mood and everything, And I stick with it and that's my choice and I do it but again, it's not something that I'm going to sit here and say that everyone should be on pregnolonone. And that is it for the slides. And, that's my summary of pregnenolone supplementation in men, specifically men on testosterone therapy.
Again, this one was focused more on men. I didn't really talk as much about the women because a lot of women are just gonna use progesterone by default. And I think a lotta the benefits that we talk about with pregnenolone is gonna be covered by progesteron in women. Doesn't mean there's not a use case for pregnolonin women, because we still have some of those other upstream hormones that are gonna metabolize if we're using progeserol. But for the purpose of the calming anxiety and sleep, a lot Progesterone being too high can cause a lot of issues, especially around libido.
And so a little tiny dose of pregnenolone is just enough to get you what you need and get where you really need to go to feel really good. Again, my stance is if you feel like you can eat it, try it. See how it works for you. Maybe it doesn't, maybe it does. And if it is, hey, great. It's a super cheap supplement that you could add in to your testosterone protocol. For me, it's good, but I'm not going to sit here and tell you that every guy needs it because they don't. There are a lot of guys that do perfectly fine without pregnanolones, without DHA. Even without HCG, I don't personally use HCg.
Now you could say, well Hunter, wouldn't using HC g stop the need for this? Yeah, but I feel a lot better without hcg taking pregnead alone. Honestly, if I wasn't taking HCG and wasn' taking pregnenol, I'd still be fine. I just feel a little bit better with it. Again, so everyone's gonna be different. This is kind of where your discretion has to come into your protocol and your doctor can't do it for you. You really have to have your own knowledge set and be able to experiment with yourself around these things to get the most out of your protocols and dial
in your sweet spot. Because again, everyone is gonna different, Everyone's testosterone therapy is ultimately gonna look a bit different once you get things dialed in. And I think two, it's probably one of those things you should be on testosterone for at least like six to 12 months to allow your body to like kind of have the processes that are going to need to take place using exogenous testosterone to happen. And then we can move into, okay, let's start optimizing and tweaking every little last piece of it. That's it for this one. Again, closing out. Thank you guys so much. I have the best audience in the world.
Again, thank you guys so much. Don't forget to sign up for the email list. I have the best audience of the world. My heart overflows with gratitude for you, guys. And I cannot thank enough for supporting me and allowing me to do what I do. That's it for this one, and I will see you in the next one. Peace.
