Steroid profiles of healthy individuals

Urine steroid profiles of healthy individuals can be divided into two groups according to greatly different excretion rates of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). About 80% of the population show an excretion of DHEA in urine of just above the detection limit or less of the main androgens androsterone (A) and etiocholanolone (E). This excretion is only enhanced in psychological stress situations. The remaining 20% excrete DHEA in roughly equal amounts as A and E. While the relation of excreted steroids is rather constant, the absolute amounts may vary greatly. In contrast to the behaviour of all other steroids DHEA excretion is not in relation to other steroids. The group of "high DHEA" producing individuals in particular shows drastic changes in the excretion during a day: the DHEA excretion rapidly rises from morning until afternoon and then drops to rather low values in the resting period during the night. A recognizable DHEA production seems to be closely related to the waking period.