Best DIM Supplement

Hormone changes can have a major effect on your overall health and well-being. From your mood to your physical health,1 even gradual changes (like the natural decline in bioavailable testosterone as you age) can have a big impact.2 Because of this, many people seek out ways to boost certain hormones or balance them out. One potential solution that’s been growing in popularity over the past few years is diindolylmethane, or DIM, supplements.

Found in cruciferous vegetables, DIM is a phytonutrient that has shown promise as a way to boost estrogen metabolism, improve prostate health, reduce cancer risk, and more.3 But are DIM supplements right for you? In our guide to the best DIM supplements of 2024, we’ll help you answer that question.

If you’re in a hurry, check out our summary of recommendations below. And for more details, read on to learn how we made our choices.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions involving staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

For our guide to the best DIM supplements, our team spent over 80 hours researching the ins and outs of how DIM may benefit a variety of concerns, including menopause symptoms, prostate health, hormone imbalances, and more. In total, we read through 40+ studies, journals, reviews, and other pieces of scientific literature to bring you the most accurate and up-to-date information. Our team also purchased the market’s top DIM supplements in order to relay details that could only be gathered from partaking in the customer experience.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

When evaluating DIM supplements, we judged them based on four criteria that consumers often care about the most:

• Safety: Do any of our picks pose any health concerns? Do the manufacturers conduct testing? Are the products allergen-free?
• Effectiveness: Which pick is most likely to help the largest number of people?
• Cost: Out of our top picks, which one is the most cost-effective? Are there any cost-saving opportunities?
• Convenience: Which supplement is the easiest to incorporate into your daily life? Are they easy to order and keep in stock?

Overall, all of our picks performed fairly well in each category. Below, we go into more detail on how each pick fared, including which one took the crown in each criterion.

Safety

Winner: Thorne

Since the FDA doesn’t regulate supplements like it does prescription medications, it’s up to supplement manufacturers to ensure their products are safe.4 This is often done by adhering to current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), subjecting products to independent third-party testing, or obtaining various safety certifications. Here’s how our top picks compare:

As you can see, only Thorne checks off all the boxes for safety. Nature’s Craft is a close second, but it does come with the risk of allergen exposure via cross-contamination.

One of our top picks, Puritan’s Pride, contains soy allergens and only has in-house testing done. The company notes that this testing is completed “as many as 15 times,” which is commendable, but no matter how many times it’s done, we’d still prefer to see the involvement of independent third parties.

Effectiveness

Winner: Nutricost (with Puritan’s Pride a close runner-up)

Taking a look at our top picks’ ingredients — particularly the amount of DIM in each — you might be confused as to why Puritan’s Pride DIM Complex, the one with the smallest serving of DIM, could be considered among the most effective. It’s because Puritan’s Pride is the only one of our picks that uses a highly bioavailable form of DIM called “BioResponse DIM,” or “BR-DIM.”

Crystalline DIM tends to exhibit low oral bioavailability, so, as noted in one 2011 study, “in an effort to improve relative bioavailability, most pharmacokinetic studies regarding DIM have been reported using BR-DIM.” The researchers go on to say this form of DIM “exhibits 50% higher bioavailability.”5 Additionally, when human subjects were given the same dose of either BR-DIM or crystalline DIM, the former group had higher levels of DIM in the blood “along with increased net exposure” to the compound.5

But that isn’t to say that the crystalline DIM found in our other picks isn’t beneficial; if it’s not as bioavailable as the branded BR-DIM, then you’d just need to deliver considerably more of it. And that’s precisely what Nutricost does. Nutricost’s 300mg per serving dwarfs the 100mg offered by Puritan’s Pride. As a potential bonus, Nutricost and Nature’s Craft both add BioPerine — a patented black pepper extract — to their DIM supplements, and an alkaloid in black pepper called piperine has been shown to increase the bioavailability of different drugs by anywhere from 30% to 200%.6 7 For example, as noted in a 2013 overview of herbal bioavailability enhancers, piperine increased the bioavailability of curcumin “almost ten-fold.”7 It may theoretically improve the bioavailability of DIM, though it’s worth noting that there haven’t been any studies specifically on black pepper extract and DIM together.

In the case of Thorne’s DIM supplement, the actual DIM takes a bit of a backseat to another ingredient — TrueBroc, a patented form of the compound sulforaphane glucosinolate. Sulforaphane glucosinolate’s clinical potential was discovered in 1992 by Johns Hopkins University researchers who found that the broccoli-derived compound appeared to have anticancer potential.8 Since then, it’s been found to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties, along with the potential to alter estrogen metabolism.9 10

So, to sum it up, all of our picks have their own merits, but Puritan’s Pride uses the most bioavailable and effective form of DIM on the market — and one that’s used in a majority of studies. But Nutricost provides enough of the less bioavailable DIM to deliver a more potent dose.

Cost

Winner: Nutricost DIM Capsules

Often, cost is the deciding factor for people deciding whether or not they’ll buy a supplement — and DIM is no exception. Both Nutricost and Nature’s Craft are our most cost-effective picks, but the former managed to beat the latter due to a couple of factors, which are illustrated in the chart below.

Note: Puritan’s Pride DIM Complex is only available as a buy-one-get-one or buy-two-get-three bulk purchase; you can’t buy just one bottle.

As you can see, Nutricost offers the lowest up-front cost option ($10), one of the lowest costs per serving ($0.17 — tied with Nature’s Craft), and one of the highest subscription discounts (20% — tied with Puritan’s Pride). All of this, plus the addition of a money-back guarantee, is why we chose Nutricost as our best budget option.

In contrast, Puritan’s Pride and Thorne both have fairly high initial costs — especially Thorne, when you consider that it’s almost $50 for a single bottle compared to the two you get from Puritan’s Pride. Thorne also has the lowest subscription discount of the bunch, and — to make matters worse — that discount only kicks in on subsequent shipments, not the initial purchase. Whether you subscribe to Thorne or not, you’ll always have to pay $47 for your first bottle of its Hormone Advantage.

Convenience

Winner: Puritan’s Pride

Truly, all of our top DIM picks are nearly tied for convenience — they all offer multi-month supplies in single-pill doses that can be purchased on a subscription basis. However, there are a few factors that set Puritan’s Pride apart from the rest:

• Every order gets you at least two bottles (or five, if you opt for the larger order).
• Subscriptions can be modified at any time for delivery every 1-6 months (Nutricost, in comparison, doesn’t let you have any other interval but 30 days).
• The company offers a 90-day money-back guarantee, the longest of our picks.

To be fair, Thorne and Nature’s Craft have similarly flexible subscription plans, and both Thorne and Nutricost have money-back guarantees (60 days each), but Puritan’s Pride happens to do those same things just a bit better.

The chart below offers a quick reference to how our top DIM picks compare in key ways, such as dosing, price, servings per bottle, and more.

DIM is the abbreviation for diindolylmethane (or, to be more specific, 3,3'-diindolylmethane), a phytonutrient found in cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, and broccoli.3 11 This compound is perhaps most well-known for its antiandrogenic and antineoplastic (anticancer) potential. As explained by the National Cancer Institute, these effects are due to DIM’s apparent abilities to promote estrogen metabolism and cause apoptosis (cell death) in tumors, respectively.3 12

Because of these potential effects, DIM is most often supplemented in an effort to improve the following concerns:

• Prostate health
• Menopause symptoms
• Cancer risk
• Hormone imbalances in men

In the next section, we review what the research says about DIM’s ability to help in each of these key areas.

As explained by experts, “DIM alters estrogen metabolism by shifting metabolism from carcinogenic 16α-hydroxy to inert 2-hydroxy derivatives, and it antagonizes estrogen and androgen receptor activity.”13

In layman’s terms, this means that DIM changes how estrogen is processed in the body. Certain estrogen by-products may raise the risk of certain cancers, while others don’t. DIM helps influence estrogen to break down into harmless by-products instead. Additionally, DIM can help balance hormones by attaching to the same receptors that estrogen and testosterone (an androgen) do.

Researchers go on to note that lower concentrations of DIM can help protect cells against oxidative stress — an imbalance of free radicals in the body that can lead to cell damage and many long-term conditions like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease.13 14

Here’s how these properties of DIM can benefit certain concerns according to current research:

For most healthy adults, DIM should be safe when taken as directed. Most of the studies that use DIM report few to no serious adverse effects. For example:

• Researchers in a 2014 study on DIM for PIN noted, “Good tolerability of DIM-based formulation allows us to recommend it for further clinical trials among men diagnosed with PIN for its efficacy and long-term safety parameters.”29
• In a 2020 systematic review of human trials using DIM, researchers stated, “Systemic toxicity was not observed in all of the human clinical trial studies after ingestion of DIM.”30
• A 2011 animal study found that DIM “seems to have no adverse [effects] on the rat even when given in doses 10x what we propose to be therapeutic.”31

Of course, we don’t recommend taking doses larger than what’s recommended on the Supplement Facts label. And it’s always important to speak with your doctor first before starting a new supplement.

Additionally, while serious adverse effects aren’t common, some patients have reported headaches or gastrointestinal upset when taking DIM in doses of 300mg or higher.30

Because of its relatively mild side effects, DIM should be suitable for most healthy adults who aren’t pregnant or breastfeeding. Of course, it’s recommended you speak with your doctor before starting a new supplement, even if you’re perfectly healthy — just to be safe.

As with most supplements, there are specific people who may benefit most from it. In the case of DIM, this includes:

• People experiencing mood or vasomotor menopause symptoms (i.e., hot flashes, night sweats)
• Assigned male at birth (AMAB) individuals with high estrogen, low testosterone, or both
• Those concerned about their risk for certain cancers (prostate, breast, ovarian, cervical, and colorectal)
• People seeking to reduce weight gain from menopause
• Those with PIN

However, it’s worth noting that the only potential benefits of DIM with a decent amount of research are those for prostate health and the risk of certain cancers. Other possible benefits are largely based on animal/cell studies, anecdotal evidence, or assumptions based on the way DIM appears to work.

Who should look elsewhere?

As mentioned earlier in this review, those who are pregnant or breastfeeding or who have hormone-sensitive cancers should steer clear of DIM due to its potential effects on hormone levels. If you fall into any of these categories, then it’s important to speak to your doctor regarding your reasons (symptoms, concerns, etc.) for wanting to take DIM; they’ll be able to point you in a safe direction.

Best value

Nutricost offers a straightforward, cost-effective DIM supplement. Like Nature’s Craft, the company adds BioPerine, a patented black pepper extract that may be able to improve DIM’s bioavailability.6 There aren’t any studies directly investigating BioPerine’s effects on DIM, but the extract has demonstrated the ability to increase the bioavailability of some substances by up to 200%. When added to curcumin, for example, researchers note that black pepper increased its bioavailability “almost ten-fold.”7

Nutricost’s supplement contains 300mg of DIM per serving, more than any of our other top picks. It’s three times the amount included in the Puritan’s Pride DIM supplement, which is important since research indicates that Nutricost’s form of DIM is only two-thirds as bioavailable as the branded form found in Puritan’s Pride. At three times the amount, but with 67% of the bioavailability, Nutricost is positioned to be slightly more potent, and its cost per serving is half the cost of Puritan’s Pride.

On the subject of manufacturing, Nutricost’s supplements are made in GMP-compliant facilities and undergo third-party testing, and its one-a-day DIM supplement is also vegetarian and free from all major allergens, like Thorne’s.

Nutricost DIM Capsules pricing

Nutricost won our choice for best budget pick for multiple reasons, including:

• A low up-front cost
• The availability of an inexpensive 30-day supply option
• A low cost per serving
• A 20% off subscription discount
• A 60-day money-back guarantee

Here’s how the pricing works out:

For the 120-capsule option, only Nature’s Craft (also $20) matches Nutricost’s price, but Nature’s Craft contains 100mg less DIM per serving. The lower subscription discount (only 15%) and the lack of a money-back guarantee from Nature’s Craft further help the nod go to Nutricost.

While the 20% discount is nice, the biggest frustration with purchasing from Nutricost comes from its subscription intervals — you can only have deliveries every 30 days. This makes subscribing to anything other than the 30-day supply a bit of a pain unless multiple people in your household are taking DIM. This is a big reason why we recommend that you buy via Nutricost’s company store on Amazon.

Best for menopause

Thorne Hormone Advantage, previously known as Thorne DIM Advantage, is similar to Nature’s Craft in that it offers additional ingredients besides DIM (pomegranate extract and sulforaphane glucosinolate). However, unlike the competition, Thorne’s supplement does not contain a bioavailability enhancer, making DIM more of a supporting player.

Let’s examine how the other ingredients can help support people dealing with menopause:

Add to the above research DIM’s potential to balance hormones by boosting estrogen metabolism, and it becomes clear why we chose Thorne Hormone Advantage as the best DIM supplement for menopause.23

Thorne Hormone Advantage pricing

Like Puritan's Pride, Thorne has some strange pricing conditions — at least when it comes to subscriptions.

At first, things seem pretty straightforward with Thorne: There’s a one-time purchase option and a subscription. However, Thorne’s subscriptions don’t work like typical ones; you only get the discount on subsequent deliveries. This means that, even if you subscribe from the outset, you’ll still be paying the same amount as a one-time purchase for your first order.

Here’s how Thorne Hormone Advantage is priced:

• One-time purchase: $47 ($0.78 per serving)
• Subsequent subscription purchases: $42 ($0.70 per serving)

On top of an odd subscription policy, Thorne is the most expensive of our picks, and the eventual subscription discount is the lowest in this guide (only 10% off). But if you’re unhappy with your Thorne purchase, the company does offer a 60-day money-back guarantee, which we appreciate.

Most bioavailable

Puritan’s Pride DIM Complex is the only one of our picks to use BR-DIM, a proprietary form of the compound that “exhibits 50% higher bioavailability” than the typically used crystalline form.5 It’s the form used most often in studies involving DIM, so the majority of the positive research surrounding DIM is on the same BR-DIM that Puritan’s Pride uses.

Like our other top picks, this supplement requires you to take only one capsule per day, but Puritan’s Pride states on the bottle that it can be taken up to three times daily. Each 60-capsule bottle should last you two months if you stick to taking only one capsule, but taking three capsules drops that down to only a 20-day supply and significantly increases the price relative to competitors. (At one capsule per day, it’s already double the cost per serving compared to Nutricost.)

Allergen-wise, Puritan’s Pride DIM Complex is free from milk, gluten, wheat, and fish ingredients, but it does contain soy, so those with soy allergies will need to steer clear. By contrast, our recommendations from Thorne and Nutricost are allergen-free.

Puritan’s Pride DIM Complex pricing

Puritan’s Pride has a fairly unique purchasing structure. For the most part, you can never get just one bottle of anything; you’ll always be receiving at least two bottles of whatever supplement you’re buying. Currently, for the DIM Complex, there are two options, both available as one-time purchases and subscriptions:

If you can afford it, the five-bottle option will cover your DIM needs for almost a year. (The subscription takes a decent amount of money off the larger order, too.)

Additionally, if you’re unhappy with your DIM Complex purchase, Puritan’s Pride has a generous 90-day money-back guarantee. This is the longest of our top picks; Nutricost and Thorne have 60-day policies, and Nature’s Craft has none.

Best for prostate health

Unlike our picks from Puritan's Pride and Nutricost, Nature’s Craft DIM For Men is a supplement that contains more than just DIM and a bioavailability enhancer. At the time of this writing, this product’s handful of ingredients include:

• DIM
• Panax ginseng
• Grape seed extract
• Astragalus root extract
• BioPerine

Since Nature’s Craft is our pick for prostate health, let’s go over how the additional ingredients (save for BioPerine, which we’ve discussed) can help:

These possible benefits — plus DIM’s potential to protect against prostate cancers15 — are why we chose Nature’s Craft as our pick for prostate health.

Nature’s Craft DIM For Men pricing

The pricing for Nature’s Craft DIM For Men is pretty straightforward (unlike Puritan’s Pride) since the company only offers one size option. The pricing details are:

• One-time purchase: $20 ($0.17 per serving)
• Subscription (15% off): $17 ($0.14 per serving)

Nature’s Craft is similar in pricing to Nutricost, but Nutricost’s higher DIM amount, better subscription deal (20%), 30-day supply option, and money-back guarantee earned it the crown for best budget option.

If you want to stock up on Nature’s Craft DIM For Men and add at least an additional $50 of it to your order (three bottles; about $60), you can purchase it using interest-free Shop Pay installments. This pay-in-four option reduces your initial cost down to about $15.

However, if you want to try a single bottle before subscribing, we recommend iHerb, which saves you two dollars and is less expensive than Amazon.

No matter your reason for investigating DIM supplements, there are multiple alternatives out there that may suit your needs just as well — or maybe even better. DIM’s potential for cancer prevention, improving prostate health, menopause symptom relief, and men’s hormone balance are a few major reasons people seem interested in it. So, below, you’ll find four categories of alternatives dedicated to each of those goals.

For cancer prevention

When it comes to cancer-preventing supplements, the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center notes that some have more potential than others, but none conclusively prevent any form of cancer. The most promising ones are:44

• Flaxseed: may slow growth of colon, lung, breast, and skin cancers
• Green tea: may reduce the risk of bladder, ovarian, esophagus, and pancreatic cancers
• Resveratrol: might prevent cellular damage linked to cancer, but it could be safer to just eat more red or purple grapes instead of taking a supplement

Unfortunately, there’s no real way to fully prevent cancers, but there are some things you can do to lower your risk, including:45

• Avoiding tobacco use
• Eating right and staying active
• Using sunscreen, especially between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
• Getting regular screenings and conducting self-exams

For prostate health

For prostate health, Dr. Quoc-Dien Trinh, a urological surgeon at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital states, “Research has explored supplements' role in prostate health suggesting positive results.”46

The supplements that have shown some promise include:46

• Saw palmetto extract: may alleviate some BPH symptoms, but results have been mixed and more research is needed
• Selenium: might protect against prostate cancer or slow its progression, but study results are mixed and more high-quality research is necessary
• Zinc: might encourage normal prostate function in those who are deficient, but high doses could increase prostate cancer risk
• Beta-sitosterol: may improve certain BPH symptoms, such as urine flow, when paired with saw palmetto

Ultimately, though, Dr. Trinh recommends people rely on healthy eating — such as following a plant-based or Mediterranean diet — over supplements for prostate health.46

For menopause symptoms

When it comes to menopause, the available treatments aren’t one-size-fits-all. While one person could benefit greatly from a supplement, someone else may do better with hormone replacement therapy, prescriptions, or something else entirely. It all depends on your symptoms, concerns, and unique body.

Some of our favorite options for menopause support include:

• Various supplements, such as specialized multivitamins; our guide to the best offers more details
• Hormone replacement therapy from telehealth companies like Winona
• Prescription treatments for menopausal skin and hair concerns from online dermatologists, such as Musely

For hormone imbalances in men

Depending on whether you’re looking for a way to reduce estrogen or boost testosterone, there are different approaches to consider.

If high estrogen is your concern, then your best bet as an alternative to DIM may be a medication, like a prescription aromatase inhibitor or a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM).47 Alternatively, reducing the fat in your diet may be able to reduce estrogen levels (according to the results of a 2016 mouse study).48 And some botanicals — like grape seed extract — may act as natural aromatase inhibitors.49

If you’re looking to boost testosterone, there are countless T-booster supplements on the market. However, our team has researched dozens of them, and we found nearly all of them to be lacking in one way or another: subclinical doses, dangerous inclusions, missing potentially beneficial ingredients, and so on. Because of this, we worked with experts to create our own — Innerbody Testosterone Support.

You can read more about that supplement and others we found recommendable in our guide to the best testosterone boosters.

Ultimately, though, if you’re concerned about a hormone imbalance, it’s best to speak with your doctor first and get testing done. If you don’t want to wait for your doctor to order testing — and you want to bring the results to them — check out our guide to at-home testosterone tests.