The Extraordinary Fertility Supplement With an Odd Name: Coenzyme Q10 or Coq10

When you are interested in getting pregnant, suddenly all kinds of interesting things come up on a Google search. You’ve certainly heard about vitamins and minerals, but how about coenzyme Q10 or CoQ10? Sounds odd, right?

This blog is going to talk about the benefits of coenzyme Q10 for fertility. It can be called coq10, CQ10, CoQ10, or coenzyme q10, BTW. This supplement is an antioxidant that is very important for egg and sperm quality. It definitely should be on your list, but you need to have the right form and a high enough dose to make a difference.

What is coenzyme Q10?

Coenzyme Q10, commonly referred to as CoQ10, is a nutrient found in the human body. It is an antioxidant that protects cells from harm while also playing a key role in metabolism.

Antioxidants are substances that protect cells from molecules known as free radicals—which are notorious for contributing to heart disease, cancer, and age-related illnesses. The highest levels of CoQ10 can be found in the heart, liver, kidneys, and pancreas.

One of CoQ10’s main jobs is to assist in the production of energy in your cells. It plays a role in the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is used for energy transfer inside cells.

CoQ10 also protects cells from oxidative damage by acting as an antioxidant. Excessive levels of free radicals cause oxidative damage, which can wreak havoc on normal cell activity.

This is known to cause a variety of health problems.

This matters for fertility because you don’t want your eggs or your partner’s sperm to be damaged from free radicals...and you want to make sure your body has the stuff on hand needed to repair if you do have oxidative damage (and we all have some level of damage). The fertility program at Simplina is all about optimizing your health and your partner’s health to have better egg and sperm quality = better chance of a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.

Since ATP is necessary to carry out all of the body's functions and oxidative damage is harmful to cells, it's not out of left field that the association between low levels of CoQ10 and chronic disorders is significant. Fertility can be a chronic health disorder due to poor health.

What are the CoQ10 benefits for female fertility?

How Does CoQ10 Improve fertility? Ideally, our body should produce Cq10, but if you have been reading my blogs and much of the research on fertility, there is the ideal versus the reality of modern life. What’s more, the body's levels of CoQ10 drop as you get older, and that’s when you need stuff that repairs your cells more.

What’s another thing that decreases with age? Female fertility. This is due to a decline in the number and quality of available eggs.

CoQ10 plays an important role in this process. As you become older, your body's production of CoQ10 diminishes, making it less effective at protecting your eggs from oxidative damage.

Therefore, CoQ10 supplements may help and even reverse this age-related decline in egg quality and quantity.

In a 2015 study, researchers found that supplementing CoQ10 can help to reverse the age-related decline in oocytes, cells in the ovaries, in both quantity and quality. In other words, CoQ10 can help to combat age-related causes of infertility.

In addition, CoQ10 has been observed to improve fertility outcomes for younger women undergoing fertility treatment. In a 2018 study, researchers measured the effects of CoQ10 pre-treatment on women with poor ovarian response who were scheduled to undergo IVF treatment.

The women who were pre-treated with CoQ10 had fewer gonadotropin requirements, an increased number of retrieved oocytes, a higher fertilization rate, and produced more high-quality embryos compared to the non-treatment group.

The clinical pregnancy and live birth rates per embryo transfer were also higher for the CoQ10 treatment group. Researchers concluded that CoQ10 improves ovarian response to stimulation and embryological parameters in young women with poor ovarian reserve. This is a big deal for women and therefore it is something I recommend (in the right form and right dose) in my practice.

What is the role of CoQ10 in male infertility?

So, what are coq10 benefits for men? According to a study, daily coenzyme Q10 supplementation can assist infertile men to enhance sperm motility.

Male infertility is frequently caused by a decrease in sperm motility (the ability of your man’s boys to swim the right way at the right speed), or clinically known as the percentage of sperm that migrate forward normally. Motility might matter just as much as sperm count—because if sperm don’t swim at the speed needed and go in the right direction, they are going to have a hard time reaching the egg.

Researchers looked at the effects of daily oral supplementation with 200 mg of coenzyme Q10 in 22 infertile males with low sperm motility. They discovered that men had lower-than-normal amounts of coenzyme Q10 in their seminal fluid at the start of the trial. After six months of supplementation with the antioxidant, the men experienced a significant increase in these levels and a significant increase in sperm motility, and this increase was linked to the rise in coenzyme Q10 levels.

In addition, an analysis was conducted to analyze the effect of coenzyme Q10 treatments in male infertility, specifically in these parameters: live birth and pregnancy rates, CoQ10 seminal concentration, sperm concentration, and sperm motility.

This was a systematic review and meta-analysis in male infertility clients with CoQ10 oral treatments. There were three trials included: 149 males in the CoQ10 group and 147 males in the placebo group.

Researchers found that there is a global improvement in sperm parameters when men supplement with CoQ10.

How much CoQ10 should I take for fertility?

There is no universally-accepted dosage for fertility enhancement. Many studies were on 100-200mg per day for age related infertility marks, but in many clients I go higher from 300 to 600 mg a day (in divided doses) since the benefits are significant for both men and women.

How long does it take for CoQ10 to improve egg quality?

The big question: How long does it take for CoQ10 to improve egg quality or sperm quality? How long does it take for CoQ10 to start working for fertility?

In general, eggs and sperm are produced every 3 months so you need to give yourself 3 months on the supplement to see a difference and before TTC. It doesn’t mean that after 3 months you can stop or that you will be at your best health; but you should have better quality eggs if you combine CoQ10 with a lifestyle fertility program. This means what you eat, how you exercise and sleep, and products you use on your body and in your home—all factors that can add up to better egg quality.

What type of CoQ10 do I take? Ubiquinone or Ubiquinol?

Don’t just grab any CoQ10 off the shelf (don’t do this for any supplement, actually). There is a difference in types on the market. You want Ubiquinol, which is more absorbable for your body and therefore works better. Yes, it is more expensive, but it is worth the extra cost.

Make sure your product does not have essential oils in it (i.e. rosemary oil or citrus oils). Unfortunately, a lot of reputable companies are using essential oils as stabilizers, but essential oils can interfere with hormonal status. This is counterproductive for fertility. Supplements can be beneficial, but you must get the right supplement with the right ingredients.

Remember that CoQ10 is only one supplement and it needs to be taken in conjunction with other supportive supplements, good food, and a healthy lifestyle to maximize its quality. What to do to learn how to put nutrition and lifestyle change together for you and your partner? Work with us. At Simplina, we are here to help make the fertility journey a little easier.