IOH Pregnenolone
IOH Nutrition · SKU C279IOH · Hormone Foundation
Pregnenolone
The first hormone your body builds. 30 mg. One tablet. Used with lab work, not guesswork.
Everything downstream in your steroid pathway — DHEA, cortisol, progesterone, testosterone, estrogen, and the neurosteroids your brain runs on — starts from one molecule. We formulated this one at a deliberately conservative 30 mg, disclosed it to the milligram, and wrote the page around the part most brands leave out: a hormone precursor belongs in a monitored protocol.
- 30 mg Pregnenolone
- 100 mg Sunflower Lecithin
- 60 Tablets · 60 Days
- 1 Tablet Daily
- Delayed-Release
- No Proprietary Blend
Start at the top of the pathway
Most hormone products work at the end of the line. This one starts at the beginning.
Pregnenolone is the first steroid your body makes from cholesterol. It happens inside the mitochondria of your adrenal glands, your gonads, and — this is the part most people miss — your brain, which manufactures its own supply independent of what your adrenals are doing.
That single fact is why pregnenolone gets talked about in two very different conversations at once. Endocrinology talks about it as a precursor: the raw material at the head of the steroid cascade. Neuroscience talks about it as a neurosteroid in its own right, a molecule that participates directly in signaling at the receptors governing alertness, calm, and memory formation.
Both conversations are legitimate. Neither one entitles anybody to promise you a hormone level. That is where we drew the line on this page.
Why we formulated this one
Because 30 mg respects what it is.
We could have put 100 mg in this tablet. A bigger number reads stronger on a shelf, and nobody would have questioned it. We chose 30 mg because pregnenolone is a hormone precursor, not a vitamin, and the right way to use one is to start conservatively, take it under supervision, and let bloodwork tell you where to go next.
Thirty milligrams gives a physician a sane starting point and a place to titrate from. It does not commit you to a dose you cannot walk back.
Straight talk before you read another word
You will find pregnenolone marketed all over the internet as a way to raise testosterone, restore youth, or refill your hormones. We are not going to tell you that. Supplying the precursor does not dictate what your body does with it — every step downstream is controlled by enzymes your genetics, your age, your stress load, and your tissue type regulate independently. There is no clear evidence that swallowing pregnenolone raises the hormones people hope it will raise.
What we can tell you honestly: this is 30 mg of a foundational neurosteroid, fully disclosed, in a clean tablet, priced so it can sit in a protocol for a long time. Everything else is a question for your labs.
The difference
Same molecule. Completely different standard.
The industry standard
- Dose picked for shelf appeal — 50 mg or 100 mg because a bigger number sells, with no guidance on where to start.
- Sold as a testosterone booster or a hormone refill, which the evidence does not support.
- Results borrowed from psychiatric trials that ran 400 to 500 mg per day, quoted without ever naming the dose.
- Buried inside an adrenal blend where the pregnenolone amount is hidden behind a proprietary label.
- Carrier and excipients undisclosed, often soy-derived.
- No mention of monitoring, no mention of who should not take it, no mention of drug interactions.
The IOH standard
- 30 mg, chosen as a conservative starting point a physician can titrate from and disclosed on the panel.
- Sold as what it is: a precursor and a neurosteroid. No promise about where your body sends it.
- Every study dose we reference is named on this page, including the ones far higher than what is in this tablet.
- Two ingredients. Both disclosed to the milligram. No blend, proprietary or otherwise.
- Sunflower lecithin, listed at 100 mg, so you know exactly what the carrier is and that it is not soy.
- A written expectation that you test first, retest later, and run this with a qualified provider.
What this formula supports
Four reasons it earns a place in a monitored protocol.
01
Foundational hormone support
Pregnenolone is the raw material at the head of your steroid pathway. Supplying it supports the body's own hormone-building machinery rather than replacing any single hormone at the end of the line.
02
Neurosteroid support for clarity
Your brain makes and uses pregnenolone locally. In that role it supports mental clarity, focus, and normal cognitive performance as part of the neurosteroid environment.
03
Calm under load
Downstream neurosteroids interact with the GABA-A and NMDA receptor systems that govern how your nervous system handles a heavy week. This formula supports a healthy stress response.
04
Once daily, all disclosed
One delayed-release tablet, sixty tablets per bottle, a full sixty days. Two ingredients, both listed with exact amounts. Nothing hidden behind a blend.
The signature section · Where pregnenolone sits
One molecule. Three roads. Your body picks the route.
This is the simplified map of steroid synthesis. Read it once and the entire argument for and against pregnenolone supplementation becomes obvious at a glance.
Cholesterol
Transported into the mitochondria by StAR protein
CYP11A1 · the rate-limiting step
Pregnenolone
The first steroid hormone your body makes — and what is in this tablet at 30 mg
Three enzymatic routes from here
Lane 01 · Neurosteroid
Pregnenolone sulfateFormed directly by sulfotransferase. Acts at NMDA and GABA-A receptors in the brain.
Receptor signalingPart of the neurosteroid environment associated with alertness, memory formation, and calm.
Lane 02 · Progesterone
ProgesteroneVia 3β-HSD. The branch point for the adrenal cortex.
Cortisol · AldosteroneThe glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid arms of the stress and fluid-balance systems.
AllopregnanoloneVia 5α-reductase and 3α-HSD. A potent positive modulator at GABA-A.
Lane 03 · Androgen
17α-hydroxypregnenoloneVia CYP17A1 hydroxylase activity.
DHEAVia CYP17A1 lyase activity. The precursor most people have actually heard of.
Testosterone · EstradiolThe end of the line, several regulated steps later.
What the map does not say
Nothing in this diagram is a conveyor belt. Every arrow is an enzyme, and every enzyme is regulated independently by tissue type, age, genetics, feedback from the pituitary, and how much cortisol demand you are under this month. Adding precursor at the top does not let you choose which lane it travels down, and it does not guarantee it travels at all.
That is not a weakness of the ingredient. It is the reason we take the position we take on this page: run a baseline panel, add the precursor, retest, and let the numbers tell you whether the pathway actually moved. That is a very different exercise from swallowing a capsule and waiting to feel something.
Inside the formula
Two ingredients. Both disclosed. Nothing to hunt for.
Pregnenolone
30 mg
The active · Neurosteroid and steroid precursor
Pregnenolone is produced in the mitochondria of the adrenal cortex, the gonads, and neural tissue, where cholesterol is cleaved by the CYP11A1 enzyme. From there it either acts locally as a neurosteroid or moves down one of the three routes mapped above. Human production is not a single tap that a supplement turns up — it is distributed across tissues, each running on its own regulation.
Thirty milligrams is a conservative daily amount. We picked it on purpose. In a hormone precursor, a starting dose you can titrate up from is worth considerably more than a headline number you have to walk back.
The dose ledger · Published human trial doses versus this tablet
We will not borrow a study result without showing you the dose that produced it. Here is the honest accounting.
| Published human study dose | Population studied | What that means here |
|---|---|---|
| 30 mg / day | Adults with a diagnosed psychiatric condition, 8 weeks, in combination and standalone designs | The same amount as this tablet, but studied in a clinical population for disease outcomes. Those results are not transferable to a healthy adult, and we do not claim them. |
| 100 mg / day | Adults with depressive disorders, 8 weeks | More than three times what is in this tablet. |
| 300 – 500 mg / day | Escalating-dose psychiatric trials, 8 to 12 weeks | Ten to sixteen times this tablet. These are the trials most pregnenolone marketing quietly quotes. We are naming them instead. |
| 30 mg / day | This product, as a foundational daily amount for general wellness use under supervision | A conservative starting point in a monitored protocol. Not a research dose, and not sold as one. |
Study doses are cited to describe the published literature, not to characterize this product's effects. Trial populations were people with diagnosed conditions; outcomes in those studies say nothing about what a healthy adult should expect.
Lecithin (Sunflower)
100 mg
The carrier · Phospholipid delivery aid
Pregnenolone is a lipophilic steroid, which means it does not disperse well on its own. Lecithin is a phospholipid emulsifier that helps a fat-soluble compound wet out and disperse rather than clump. We specified sunflower-derived lecithin instead of the cheaper soy version, which matters if you are avoiding soy, and we put the amount on the panel rather than hiding it in the other-ingredients line where most brands would have parked it.
Straight talk about the lecithin
One hundred milligrams of lecithin is a delivery aid. It is not a therapeutic phosphatidylcholine or choline dose — studies looking at choline for cognitive or liver endpoints use amounts measured in grams, not in this range. We list it as an active because we disclose everything in the formula, not because 100 mg of lecithin is doing independent work in your brain. Anybody telling you otherwise is selling you an excipient.
The Tablet Itself
Delayed-Release
The delivery form · Coated tablet
This is a coated, delayed-release tablet rather than a plain powder capsule. The coating system, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and pharmaceutical glaze, is designed so the tablet holds together through the stomach and releases further along the digestive tract. For a steroid molecule that is a reasonable delivery decision, and it is one of the reasons a once-daily tablet works for this formula.
Straight talk about "delayed release"
Delayed release describes where a tablet dissolves, not how long it keeps releasing. We are not going to tell you it drips a steady stream of hormone precursor into your bloodstream for twelve hours or that it prevents peaks and crashes, because we have no pharmacokinetic data on this tablet that would support saying that. What we will say is that it is coated, it is once daily, and it is easy to take with a meal.
The panel
Supplement Facts
Supplement Facts
Serving Size: 1 Tablet
Servings per Container: 60
| Amount Per Serving | % DV | |
|---|---|---|
| Lecithin (Sunflower) | 100 mg | * |
| Pregnenolone | 30 mg | * |
* Daily Value (DV) not established.
Other ingredients: Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Dicalcium Phosphate Dihydrate, Calcium Carbonate, Croscarmellose Sodium, Pectin Powder, Vegetarian Stearates, Silica, Pharmaceutical Glaze, Magnesium Silicate.
Transcribed from the printed label, also shown in the product images. Sixty tablets, one tablet per serving, sixty servings — a full sixty days on the recommended once-daily use.
What it is
A once-daily, delayed-release tablet supplying 30 mg of pregnenolone with 100 mg of sunflower lecithin as a phospholipid carrier. Two ingredients, both disclosed. No proprietary blend, no filler dressed up as an active.
What it does
Supplies the precursor molecule at the head of the steroid pathway and the neurosteroid pool your brain draws on. Supports mental clarity, a healthy stress response, and the body's own hormone-building machinery.
Who it's for
- Adults working with a provider on a lab-guided hormone protocol
- People supporting cognitive clarity and stress resilience
- Anyone who wants a conservative starting dose instead of a marketing dose
- Anyone building a healthy-aging protocol from the foundation up
How to take it
One tablet daily, or as directed by your healthcare provider. Most people take it in the morning with food. Do not increase the dose on your own. Not for use by anyone under 18, or by women who are pregnant or nursing.
Honest expectations
The first 90 days, done the way we would run it in the office.
We are not going to give you a timeline of feelings. Hormone precursors do not work on a schedule you can print on a page, and anyone who promises you week-three results is guessing. Here is the protocol instead.
Before day one
Get the baseline.
Talk to your provider and draw labs before you start. A meaningful baseline generally includes pregnenolone, DHEA-S, a morning cortisol, and the sex hormones relevant to you. Without a starting number, you have nothing to compare anything to, and you will end up making decisions on feel alone.
Weeks 1 to 4
One tablet. Nothing else changes.
Hold the dose at one tablet daily and do not stack a second hormone precursor on top of it in the same window. Keep brief notes on sleep quality, mood, energy through the afternoon, and skin. If anything feels off — restlessness in particular — stop and call your provider rather than pushing through it.
Weeks 8 to 12
Retest, then decide.
Redraw the same panel and look at what actually moved. This is the step almost nobody takes, and it is the only one that answers the real question: did the pathway respond in you, specifically. Your provider adjusts, continues, or discontinues from data instead of impressions.
What to look for
How to read any pregnenolone label, including ours.
| What to check | The typical off-the-shelf version | IOH Pregnenolone |
|---|---|---|
| Dose disclosure | Often folded into an adrenal or hormone blend where the pregnenolone amount is not broken out. | 30 mg, stated on the panel. Two ingredients total. No blend to hide behind. |
| Dose rationale | 50 mg or 100 mg chosen because a larger number performs better on a shelf, with no starting-point guidance. | 30 mg chosen as a conservative starting point a physician can titrate from, and the reasoning is printed on this page. |
| Research honesty | Outcomes quoted from 400 to 500 mg trials without ever naming the dose that produced them. | Every study dose we mention is stated, including the ones far above what this tablet contains. |
| Hormone claims | Frequently marketed as raising testosterone or refilling your hormones. | No promise about downstream conversion. We say plainly that your enzymes decide, not the bottle. |
| Carrier and source | Carrier usually undisclosed, and lecithin is commonly soy-derived. | Sunflower lecithin, 100 mg, listed on the panel. No soy. |
| Safety guidance | Rarely more than a generic "consult your physician" line. | A named interaction FAQ, an explicit monitoring protocol, and clear exclusions for who should not take it. |
| Serving arithmetic | Multi-tablet servings that quietly cut the real days supply in half. | One tablet, 60 servings, 60 tablets, 60 days. The math is the math. |
Comparison describes common category practices, not any specific competing brand or product.
Proof, not promises
What we will stand behind in writing.
- Every active disclosed with its exact milligram amount. Two ingredients, zero proprietary blends.
- No claim that this product raises testosterone, DHEA, or any other downstream hormone.
- Every research dose referenced on this page is named, including the ones far higher than this tablet.
- Manufactured in the United States in an FDA-registered, GMP-compliant facility.
- Sunflower-derived lecithin, disclosed on the panel rather than buried in other ingredients.
- The Supplement Facts panel above matches the printed label in the product images.
- Clear exclusions printed on the page: not for anyone under 18, not during pregnancy or nursing.
- An explicit recommendation to run this with a qualified provider and lab monitoring.
Manufacturing and standardization
Where it is made, and what we are not claiming.
01
FDA-registered facility
Produced in the United States in a facility registered with the FDA. Registration means the facility is on file and subject to inspection. It is not an FDA endorsement of any product, and we will not describe it as one.
02
GMP compliant
Manufactured under current Good Manufacturing Practice requirements, which govern identity, cleanliness, documentation, and process control from raw material intake through finished tablet.
03
Tested during production
Our manufacturer performs testing at multiple stages of production on raw material identity and finished product. High-quality raw materials, sourced for this formula specifically.
What we are not claiming on this SKU
We have not published a batch certificate of analysis for this specific product. Until we do, you will not see the words "third-party tested" or "purity guaranteed" anywhere on this page, because a claim like that belongs to a document, not to a marketing paragraph. When the COA for this SKU is in hand, it goes into the product images and this section gets rewritten. That is the standard we hold every IOH page to.
From the founder
Thirty-three years, and one rule about hormones.
I have watched people chase a feeling with hormones for three decades. They read something, they take something, they wait to feel different, and when they do not, they take more. Nobody in that sequence ever drew a tube of blood.
My clinical opinion on pregnenolone is simple, and it has not changed: it is a legitimate molecule sitting at a legitimate place in the pathway, and it deserves to be used the way a physician would use it. Test first. Start low. Retest. Let the numbers make the decision. If a company sells you a hormone precursor without ever mentioning bloodwork, that tells you what they think of you.
That is exactly why we set this one at 30 mg and wrote the honest version of the page instead of the profitable one.
Dr. Andreas Boettcher · Master's Men's Physique
This photo is not a product claim. It is decades of training, food, sleep, and lab work. No supplement produces it, and this one is a single line item in a much longer protocol.
Dr. Andreas Boettcher, B.S., D.C., C.F.M.P.
Founder, It's Only Halftime
- Ironman Triathlete
- Master's Men's Physique Competitor
- Medication-Free at 56
- 33 Years of Clinical Practice
Build the stack
What we would put around it.
A precursor is only as useful as the system it lands in. These three support the machinery that makes and uses pregnenolone in the first place.
The site of synthesis
MitoHealth
Pregnenolone is manufactured inside the mitochondria — cholesterol is shuttled in, and CYP11A1 does the work there. Supporting mitochondrial function supports the environment where your own production happens.
Add MitoHealth →
The stress axis
Adrenal Support
The adrenal cortex is the main site of steroid production outside the brain and gonads, and it is the tissue most affected by a long run of high demand. Pairing precursor with adrenal support addresses both ends of the same system.
Add Adrenal Support →
The membrane
Omega 3 TS
Neurosteroids do their work at receptors embedded in neuronal membranes, and those membranes are built from the fats you eat. Omega-3 status supports normal brain structure alongside a neurosteroid protocol.
Add Omega 3 TS →
One stacking rule we will not bend
Do not add a second hormone precursor — DHEA in particular — to this at the same time without your provider's involvement and a panel to look at. Two precursors started in the same week means that when something changes, you will have no idea which one did it. Add one variable at a time. That is how you learn anything.
If you take one thing from this page, take this: the bottle is the easy part. The bloodwork is what makes it worth doing.
Stay Strong,
Dr. Andreas
Dr. Andreas Boettcher, B.S., D.C., C.F.M.P.
Questions, answered
Questions, answered.
Why only 30 mg when other brands sell 50 mg or 100 mg?
Because we would rather you start below where you need to be and walk up under supervision than start above it and have to unwind something. Pregnenolone is a hormone precursor. The dosing logic that applies to vitamin C does not apply here.
Thirty milligrams gives a provider a clean starting point and a lot of room to adjust. If your labs say you need more, that is a conversation to have with your provider, not a decision to make in your kitchen.
Will this raise my testosterone?
We are not going to claim it will. Pregnenolone sits upstream of testosterone in the pathway, but "upstream" is not the same as "converts to." Every step between them is controlled by enzymes that your tissue type, age, genetics, and current physiological demand regulate independently, and there is no clear evidence that supplementing pregnenolone raises downstream hormone levels the way the marketing suggests.
If raising testosterone is your goal, that is a lab-guided conversation with a physician, not a purchase decision.
Do I really need lab work, or is that just a disclaimer?
It is not a disclaimer. It is the reason this page exists in the form it does. You cannot tell by feel whether a precursor moved your pathway, and with hormones, "I think it's working" is the least reliable data you can collect.
A baseline panel before you start and a repeat panel around eight to twelve weeks in turns a guess into a decision. Your provider will choose the specific markers, but pregnenolone, DHEA-S, morning cortisol, and the sex hormones relevant to you are a reasonable place to start the conversation.
Morning or evening?
Most people take it in the morning with food, which matches the body's own daily rhythm of steroid production. If you notice restlessness or difficulty settling at night, mention it to your provider before you change anything on your own.
Medications and safety: what should I check before I start?
Talk to your physician or pharmacist before starting this product if you take or are considering any of the following: hormone replacement therapy of any kind, including testosterone, estrogen, or progesterone; oral contraceptives, particularly progestin-containing formulations, which have been excluded from pregnenolone research protocols on the theoretical basis that neurosteroids may interact with them; corticosteroids such as prednisone; anti-androgens, aromatase inhibitors, or other hormone-modulating medications; or any medication prescribed for a hormone-sensitive condition.
Also talk to your physician first if you have a personal or family history of a hormone-sensitive condition, or if you are being managed for any adrenal, thyroid, or pituitary condition. This applies whether or not you feel fine on your current regimen.
Who should not take this?
Anyone under 18 years of age. Anyone who is pregnant, trying to become pregnant, or nursing. Anyone with a hormone-sensitive condition, unless a physician managing that condition has specifically cleared it. Anyone unwilling or unable to use it under provider supervision with monitoring.
If any of those describe you, this is not the product for you, and we would rather say so here than take the order.
Can I stack it with DHEA?
That combination does appear in the clinical literature, but it is not something to assemble on your own. You would be adding two hormone precursors to the same pathway at the same time, and if anything shifts — good or bad — you will not know which one caused it.
If your provider wants both, let them sequence it and monitor it. If you are running this yourself, add one thing at a time.
I compete in a drug-tested sport. Can I use this?
Pregnenolone is not currently listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List. That said, the list is reviewed and updated every year, individual federations and organizations maintain their own rules, and this product does not carry a certified-for-sport mark. Under anti-doping rules, the athlete is responsible for whatever is in their body regardless of the source.
If you compete under testing, check the current status through Global DRO and confirm with your federation and your team physician before you take this or anything else. Do not take our word for it, and do not take a supplement label's word for it either.
Is it vegan? Does it contain soy?
No soy — the lecithin is sunflower-derived, which was a deliberate choice. It is not vegan, however. The tablet coating includes pharmaceutical glaze, which is shellac-based and therefore insect-derived. We would rather tell you that plainly than let a "vegetarian stearates" line on the label imply something the coating does not support.
How long does one bottle last?
Sixty tablets, one tablet per serving, sixty servings — sixty days at the recommended once-daily use. Two months per bottle, with no multi-tablet serving quietly cutting that in half.
The close
Start where your body starts.
Everything downstream — the calm, the clarity, the resilience, the hormones people spend years chasing at the end of the pathway — begins with one molecule your body builds out of cholesterol inside a mitochondrion. That is not marketing. That is biochemistry, and it has been sitting in the textbook the whole time.
We are not promising you it will refill your hormones, because nobody honestly can. What we are handing you is 30 mg of a clean, fully disclosed, conservatively dosed foundational precursor, in a once-daily tablet, at a price that lets it live in a real protocol for as long as your labs say it belongs there.
Test first. Start low. Retest. Then decide with something better than a feeling.
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