CoQ10 is commonly used by patients undergoing IVF. Does the use of CoQ10 before or during
IVF treatment increase the chance for having a live birth? Is there any harm?
In today’s episode of InfertilityTV, I will discuss this monster of the supplement industry.
The supplement industry has grown into a behemoth. CoQ10
alone is estimated to generate over 1 billion dollars in sales annually.
What is CoQ10? CoQ10 or coenzyme Q10 is a vitamin-like substance that your body
produces naturally. The levels of CoQ10 in your body naturally decrease as you get older. CoQ10 is
found inside of your cells in the mitochondria. Mitochondria produce the energy that the cells
need to function and CoQ10 helps them to do that. Another role for CoQ10 is to protect the
cells from damage from free radicals. In this role, CoQ10 is referred to as an anti-oxidant.
In the last several years, there has been interest in the use of CoQ10 to improve
fertility or IVF success. There is a theory that some fertility problems may be caused or worsened
by low energy production in egg cells or damage to eggs from free radicals and that
taking CoQ10 supplements in the form of a pill or capsule can therefore improve fertility.
When I am evaluating a supplement to recommend to my patients, one of the first questions I ask is
whether there is any laboratory or animal evidence that suggests it might be helpful. In this study,
researchers working with mice did an experiment in which they fed mice CoQ10 for 12 to 16 weeks.
In older mice, they saw improvement in some markers of mitochondrial function, more eggs
were ovulated, the developmental potential of the eggs was improved, and more mouse pups were born.
That sounds great, right? Before you rush out to buy some, you need to know two important
facts. First, in younger mice, there was no improvement seen in any of these areas. Second,
even if it works in mice, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it would work in humans. For example,
mice have very short lifespans. The researchers in this study fed their mice CoQ10 for 12 weeks.
To duplicate that in a human, you would need to take CoQ10 for about ten years.
What about studies in human beings? There have been a few small studies looking at CoQ10
supplementation before and during treatment with IVF. Some of these studies have been
of poor quality and some have been of better quality. Because IVF responses vary so much
from one attempt to the next, the highest quality studies look at two groups simultaneously - one
group is given real CoQ10 pills and the other group gets placebo pills without CoQ10. To avoid
biasing the results, the couples who get the CoQ10 are chosen at random and neither the doctors nor
the patients should know who got the real stuff until after the treatment is done. This type of
study is called a randomized, double blinded placebo controlled trial or RCT for short.
Unfortunately, there have only been 5 of these studies with a total of 449 women. Only 2 studies
actually looked at the live birth rate. Those two studies combined only had 208 patients. Combining
those studies, we see that CoQ10 supplementation in IVF did not increase the live birth rate.
Now some of you might say, well, what’s the harm? First, CoQ10 causes a number of side
effects including abdominal pain, diarrhea, loss of appetite, headaches and dizziness, insomnia,
fatigue, skin itching or rashes, irritability or agitation and occasional liver damage. Second,
the production of CoQ10 and other supplements are not supervised by the FDA. This means that
you have no way of knowing whether the pill you are putting into your body actually has
any CoQ10 in it. In 2015, a study in New York of supplements found that a given brand might contain
none of the so-called active ingredients. Also, in the past, supplement manufacturers
have purposefully spiked their supplements with other drugs to get a desired effect or unknowingly
introduced contaminants like lead, arsenic or mercury during the manufacturing process.
Our InfertilityTV Bottom Line is this. There is currently no high quality scientific evidence
that CoQ10 will improve your chances of having a healthy live born baby from IVF.
There are potential risks to taking uncontrolled and unregulated supplements. IVF is an expensive
and involved treatment. Don’t take a chance on ruining your cycle with an unproven supplement.