Should Every Woman Over 40 Take A CoQ10 Supplement? (2025)

I have to admit out of the gate that I’m inherently skeptical of many supplements. But there’s a buzzy one I’m particularly intrigued by these days. CoQ10 (or co-enzyme Q10, also called ubiquinone and ubiquinol), is kind of like a good pair of sneakers because it’s versatile. Like snappy kicks that can take you from your morning runs to afternoon brunches, the supp du jour, CoQ10, can also do a lot in your body, as it has many supposed benefits.

A quick primer: You’ve probably heard of mitochondria, or the powerhouse of your cells, which is where energy—called ATP or adenosine triphosphate—comes from. “ATP is basically how your body stores and uses energy,” says Zachary Mulvihill, MD, an integrative medicine specialist. All food has energy, but it has to be digested, metabolized, and converted into ATP so you can use it—and CoQ10 is one of the many molecules that sits inside the mitochondria and helps that process along.

Meet the Experts: Zachary Mulvihill, MD, is an integrative medicine specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine. Aarti Soorya, MD, is an integrative medicine physician at Grover Health.

In doing so, it wards off inflammation and cellular damage, which is why supplemental CoQ10 *might* be beneficial for a number of different bodily functions (getting to those!), at least in theory.

“CoQ10 is one of the most commonly used supplements,” Dr. Mulvihill says, like multivitamins and fish oil, because it’s pretty well-researched and safe to take. And remember what I said about it being versatile? CoQ10 is said to have potential benefits such as helping with cardiovascular health, fertility, and other age-related declining bodily factors.

You produce the most CoQ10 in your mid-twenties, Dr. Mulvihill says, and “by the time you're 65, you produce about half that amount.” It’s unclear whether this drop is due to aging itself, or from inflammatory lifestyle factors, like a lack of sleep, that can deplete antioxidants. Regardless, less CoQ10 could mean that the process of converting food into ATP is less efficient, which could impact various bodily systems, per Aarti Soorya, MD, an integrative medicine physician. Also, CoQ10 helps decrease inflammation, she adds.

Plus, as you age, you also collect more oxidative stress, says Dr. Mulvihill. Oxidative stress can cause cell and tissue damage, and ultimately might lead to chronic conditions like cardiovascular and neurological issues, per the Cleveland Clinic. CoQ10 is an antioxidant that discards free radicals that cause oxidative stress and can contribute to aging, says Dr. Mulvihill.

So, should every woman over 40 be taking a CoQ10 supp? Ahead, read up on the many potential benefits of CoQ10 supplementation, plus possible risks, and who should take it.

Health Benefits Of CoQ10 Supplementation

Thanks to CoQ10’s ability to assist the mitochondria in our cells to make more energy and prevent excess free radicals that lead to inflammation and cellular damage, the supp may be worthwhile for the following health benefits.

It can be helpful for those with heart conditions.

Since CoQ10 is essential for your body to make energy, it's the most prevalent in the tissues that use the most energy, a.k.a., your heart, says Dr. Mulvihill. A majority of research on CoQ10 is around its impact on cardiovascular disease—including heart failure, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

CoQ10 supplementation can decrease vascular stiffness and hypertension (high blood pressure), reduce oxidative stress (an imbalance in free radicals and antioxidants that can lead to cell damage, per the Cleveland Clinic) and mortality from cardiovascular causes, per a 2021 study in Antioxidants. This supp can also improve the outcome of coronary artery bypass graft surgeries, including shorter hospital stays for those who supplemented with CoQ10, the study found.

It might be helpful for people on statins.

Patients with cardiovascular disease are sometimes prescribed statins, a medication that lowers cholesterol, Dr. Mulvihill adds. However, your body produces CoQ10 in the same pathway that statins block, which can create muscle pain as a side effect. So, CoQ10 supplements can help try to prevent this pain, he says.

Research in this area is mixed, as 2020 research in Atherosclerosis shows that CoQ10 does not significantly help with muscle pain. However, in Dr. Mulvihill’s clinical experience, he believes people can benefit from CoQ10 supplementation.

It could be useful for improving fertility for women over 30.

As you get older, egg quality decreases and CoQ10 production slows down, says Dr. Mulvihill. CoQ10 might "help maintain your egg quality and reduce the age-related decline in egg quality and quantity," he says.

This decline is often linked to a decrease in mitochondrial function and, since CoQ10 helps improve mitochondrial function, in turn it can support healthier eggs and possibly improve fertility, Dr. Mulvihill adds, particularly for women over 30 and/or who are trying to get pregnant or are freezing their eggs. It can also help to try a CoQ10 supplement while you're undergoing fertility treatment like IVF, as long as you have approval from your physician, adds Dr. Soorya.

While more research in this field needs to be done to truly determine whether CoQ10 can benefit your fertility, some research seems promising: A 2024 study in Advances in Nutrition found that women who supplemented with CoQ10 were more likely to become pregnant compared to those who took a placebo.

It could help reduce the frequency and duration of migraines.

“There are small studies that show it may reduce migraine headaches, which are much more common in women,” Dr. Mulvilhill says. For example, 2021 research in BMJ Open concluded that CoQ10 supplementation might help reduce the duration and frequency of migraine attacks. (However, the research found that CoQ10 supplementation did not appear to significantly reduce the severity of migraines.)

It might help with blood sugar regulation.

If a patient has diabetes, Dr. Mulvihill might talk to them about taking CoQ10 supplements, since they’ve been shown to have a beneficial effect on glycemic control, particularly among those who are diabetic. Having better blood sugar regulation and glycemic control can help those who are diabetic reduce morbidity and increase their life expectancy and quality of life, according to a 2022 study in Cureus. As little as 100 milligrams a day of CoQ10 could yield these benefits, per 2022 research in eClinicalMedicine.

It could help people manage fibromyalgia.

Some evidence shows that CoQ10 supps may help with fibromyalgia, which is a muscle pain disorder that’s more common in women, Dr. Mulvihill says. The pain typically comes from an unknown source and is widespread, according to the NIH.

Some research calls CoQ10 the “gold standard supplement” for reducing pain from fibromyalgia. However, the scientific community is mixed on whether it’s backed by enough solid studies, says Dr. Mulvihill.

It might help ward off gingivitis.

Dr. Mulvihill also might recommend CoQ10 for patients dealing with gingivitis—which is mild gum disease—before it turns into periodontitis, the more serious gum infection. Supplementing CoQ10 in addition to keeping up healthy oral hygiene practices can potentially help both of these infections, according to 2023 research in PharmaNutrition, but more research is needed to definitively prove this.

It could potentially help endurance athletes with recovery.

“CoQ10 is popular among endurance athletes” because they may feel like it’s helping replenish their energy, says Dr. Mulvihill. “Whether it truly is helping them or not is unclear because there’s not good research to validate that, and there probably never will be,” he says.

If you’re undergoing a period where your body is taking on a lot of stress, like you’re training for a marathon, “that could be a temporary time to [take CoQ10] as an adjunct treatment to help mitigate the oxidative stress that can happen on the body,” Dr. Soorya adds. Dr. Mulvill agrees, saying there’s no harm in taking it for endurance training, as long as you’re not on any medications it might interact with. (More on that later!)

Just try not to rely on CoQ10 for energy, Dr. Soorya says. Instead, you should be making the right lifestyle choices, like getting lots of sleep and eating nutritiously before supplementing, she says.

Potential Risks Of CoQ10 Supplementation

Everyone should talk to their doctor before starting a new supplement, especially if you’re considering CoQ10 and you have congestive heart failure, or you’re taking medications that might have interactions, including chemotherapy, blood thinning, or blood pressure medications, says Dr. Mulvihill.

“CoQ10 may reduce blood pressure, so if you are on medications for hypertension, this needs to be monitored closely,” Dr. Soorya says. It can also make anticoagulants (blood thinning agents) less effective and increase your chances of clots, as well as interact with insulin (which may affect those who are diabetic,) he adds. One other contraindication: Since supplements are processed through the liver and kidneys, people with issues with either organ should not take supplements without a doctor’s supervision, Dr. Soorya adds.

Otherwise, at low doses—like 100 to 120 milligrams—for a few months at a time, CoQ10 seems “exceedingly safe and very low-risk to try,” especially if you’re looking to reap benefits in the fertility, migraine, or fibromyalgia realms. Just make sure the CoQ10 is from a reputable brand (like one that has a third-party testing process to verify the ingredients), and that it’s okay with your primary care doctor, Dr. Mulvihill says.

Side effects from low doses tend to be rare, but may include mild gastrointestinal issues like nausea or diarrhea, he adds. Sleep disturbances, including a harder time falling asleep and waking up more in the middle of the night, have also been reported, per Dr. Soorya.

If—And How—You Should Take CoQ10

Neither Dr. Mulvihill nor Dr. Soorya would recommend everyone take CoQ10. Instead, Dr. Mulvihill usually recommends CoQ10 supplementation to these specific patients with:

• Heart disease, especially if they’re on a statin
• High blood pressure
• Migraines
• Diabetes
• Fibromyalgia
• Gingivitis
• Those thinking about preserving their fertility

If you do decide to try CoQ10 supplements and have cleared it with your doctor, Dr. Mulvihill says about 100-120 milligrams a day should be sufficient. The time of day you take it isn’t overly important, but you might want to take it in the morning along with a source of fat (like a fish oil supplement or avocado) as it’s a fat-soluble nutrient, so it’ll be absorbed easier into the body with a second fat.

Another tip: Try the CoQ10 supplement for three months, then stop for a couple of weeks to gauge whether you felt better while you were taking it, Dr. Mulvihill adds. (FYI: While CoQ10 does exist in some foods like meat and fatty fish, it’s not in sufficient enough doses to make a CoQ10-focused diet worthwhile.)

But I’d be remiss not to also mention that “supplements are there to supplement your diet and lifestyle,” says Dr. Mulvihill. So, in addition to taking CoQ10 supplements, you should prioritize getting seven to nine hours of sleep per night, focusing on quality nutrition, and consistently exercising.