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👁 14,847 readers · 📖 5 min read · 🗓 Last updated April 2026

I Thought Taking CoQ10 Every Day Was Protecting My Eggs For IVF.. Right?
Wrong.
Here's What I Found Out After Zero Blasts On Day 5..

By Jamie R. | Age 38

Writing this 37 weeks pregnant after her second IVF retrieval

★★★★★ 2,847 women found this before their retrieval. Most said they wish they'd found it sooner.

Okay so I need to tell you something about IVF that genuinely made me feel sick when I found out..


I took CoQ10 every single day for four months before my first retrieval.


And not to mention the 100s of dollars I spent on everything else per month..


And I just found out that most of it never reached my eggs..


Like not even close to most of it!!


I wish someone had told me this before I went through what I went through.


Because I did everything right.


The supplements.


The acupuncture.


No alcohol, no caffeine, and eight hours of sleep pretty much every night..


I even read "It Starts With the Egg" twice!


And on Day 5, the embryologist called and told me none of my embryos made it.


Zero blasts..


When I heard the news, it felt like my heart dropped to my stomach..


And then a wave of sadness hit me..


I sat there, balling my eyes out..


If you have a retrieval coming up and you're doing some of the same stuff I mentioned please keep reading..


I really mean that..

The Call That Changes Everything

I remember exactly where I was.


Standing in my kitchen making coffee like it was a normal Tuesday morning..


Like my whole world wasn't about to fall apart in the next 60 seconds.


My phone rings and I see the clinic number and my stomach just.. drops.


You know that feeling where your body knows something before your brain does?


That was me.


I answered and she said my name and there was something in her voice and I already knew..


I already knew before she even said it.


"I'm so sorry Jamie. None of them made it to blast."


None of them.


Zero.


After everything.


I said "okay, thank you" and I hung up and I genuinely don't know why I said that lol.. like thank you?? For what??


And then I just stood there.


Didn't move. Didn't cry. Just stood there staring at my coffee going cold on the counter.


And then it hit me all at once..


The supplements I'd been choking down every morning.


The acupuncture appointments I'd dragged myself to every single week.


The alcohol I'd turned down at my best friend's birthday.


The $23,000 we'd handed over.


Four months of doing everything right.


And I had nothing to show for it.


Nothing.


I slid down the kitchen cabinet and sat on the floor and I just sobbed..


Like ugly, gasping, can't-catch-your-breath sobbing.


The kind where you don't even make noise at first.


I sat there on that kitchen floor for I don't even know how long..


And the only thing going through my head was..


Why wasn't it enough..

What $240 A Month In Supplements Actually Did To My Embryos..

Okay so let me paint you a picture of what "doing everything right" actually looked like for me..


Because I need you to see this.


Every single morning I would line up my supplements on the counter.


CoQ10 600mg. Ubiquinol. DHEA. Myo-inositol. Melatonin. Prenatal. Omega-3s. Vitamin D3. Vitamin E.


Nine different things before I'd even had breakfast.


$240 a month just on supplements.


On top of acupuncture every week at $120 a session.


No alcohol. Not one sip. For four months.


No caffeine.


Eight hours of sleep every night even when I couldn't stop my brain from going..


I read "It Starts With the Egg" twice and took notes like I was studying for an exam lol.


I had a literal spreadsheet. Colour coded. With supplement timing down to the hour.


I was not messing around.


And I genuinely believed that if I just did everything right..


My eggs would be ready.


My embryos would make it.


And I would get that call on Day 5 that changed everything.


I did get a call on Day 5.


It just wasn't the one I was waiting for.

Why Your Eggs Ran Out Of Fuel - And Why Your RE Only Gave You Half The Answer

After the call I needed to understand why.


Like I couldn't just accept "egg quality" as an answer and move on.


What does that even mean??


So I started digging.


And here's what I found out that nobody had ever actually explained to me properly..


Your eggs have more mitochondria than any other cell in your entire body.


Like 200 times more.


And the reason for that is actually kind of wild..


Growing into a baby takes an insane amount of energy.


So your eggs are basically these little energy-hungry machines that need constant fuel to do their job.


That fuel is called ATP.


And your mitochondria are what make it.


So when your mitochondria can't produce enough ATP..


Your embryo runs out of steam.


It doesn't stop because there's something genetically wrong with it.


It stops because it literally ran out of energy to keep going.


Like Tracy Donegan, who works with fertility patients specifically on this stuff, put it..


"It doesn't stop growing because it was 'bad.' It stops because it lacked the power to finish the marathon of cell division."


That hit me so hard when I read it.


Because my eggs weren't bad.


They were just exhausted.


And that completely changed how I thought about what I needed to do differently..

So Here's The Thing Nobody Told Me About CoQ10..

Like I said, I'd been taking it for months.


600mg a day. The expensive kind.


And when I found out what was actually happening to it after I swallowed it.. I genuinely felt sick.


Because here's what CoQ10 has to survive before it gets anywhere near your eggs..


Your stomach. Your gut. Your liver. Your bloodstream. And then somehow across the ovarian cell membrane..


By the time it's done all of that.. most of it is already gone.


Research shows oral CoQ10 bioavailability is as low as 3%.


3%!!


So if you're taking 600mg a day like I was..


Maybe 18mg is getting to where it needs to go..


I literally sat there doing that math and wanted to cry lol.


Because I wasn't doing anything wrong.


I was taking the right thing.


It just.. couldn't get there.


There's actually a woman on Mumsnet who said something that hit me really hard when I read it..


"I've had cycles where I've taken very few supplements, and cycles where I've taken shed loads, and there has been absolutely no difference." — Mumsnet, 5 IVF cycles


She did 5 IVF cycles saying that.


She wasn't lazy. She wasn't doing it wrong.


She just didn't know about the wall she was hitting.


Neither did I..


Until I found out there was a way around it.

Wait.. Doesn't Taking The Expensive Form Fix This?

Okay so this was literally my first thought when I found out about the absorption problem lol..


I remember thinking "well I'm already taking ubiquinol so I'm fine, right?"


Ubiquinol is the active form. It's supposed to absorb better. It's like $80 a month just for that one supplement.


So surely that solves it..


It doesn't.


Like yes it absorbs slightly better than the regular form.


But slightly better than 3% is still.. not great lol.


Your $80-a-month supplement is still mostly gone before it gets anywhere close to your eggs.


And that was the moment I really lost it a little bit.


Because I'd been so proud of myself for taking the "right" form.


I'd done the research. I'd spent the extra money. I wasn't cutting corners.


And it still wasn't getting there.


The supplement companies know this problem exists.


They just never fixed it.


They sold us more expensive versions of the same thing that wasn't working and called it an upgrade..

My Dad Said He Wanted To Pay For Another Try..

After I got the call I pretty much stopped everything for a week.


The supplements. The acupuncture. All of it.


I couldn't even look at the bottles on my counter without feeling sick.


What was the point.


I didn't really talk to anyone about it either.


Most people in my life didn't even know we'd been doing IVF.


So I was just kind of.. quietly falling apart by myself lol.


And then my dad called.


My dad had been watching all of this from the sidelines.


He'd heard the bits and pieces I'd let slip.


He knew how hard I'd been working at it.


And he called me up one day and he said he wanted to pay for us to try again.


I told him no.


He said he wasn't asking lol.


I cried for like an hour after I hung up.


And I want to be honest about something here because it feels important..


Most women don't get a second chance like that.


I know that.


I knew it then.


$20,000 is not something most families can do twice and I didn't take what my dad offered lightly for one single second.


But it also meant I couldn't waste it.


I couldn't just do the same thing and hope for a different result.


I had to find what I missed the first time..

I Almost Scrolled Past The Post That Changed Everything..

So I went back through every single thing I did before my first cycle.


Not to beat myself up about it.


Just trying to figure out where the gap was.


What was I doing that wasn't actually working?


It was like 11pm and I was half asleep scrolling through my fertility Facebook group when I saw a post about CoQ10.


And normally I would have kept scrolling because honestly I'd read so much about CoQ10 at that point I could write a book lol.


But something made me stop.


Because she wasn't talking about which brand to buy or what dose to take.


She was asking whether it was actually reaching her eggs at all.


She'd found research on oral absorption rates.


I sat up.


Read it three times.


And then I started pulling on that thread..


And what I found made my stomach drop.

The Secret Fertility Clinics In Denmark And Japan Have Been Hiding From REs In The US..

So once I understood the absorption problem the next question was obvious..


If pills can't reliably get this stuff to my eggs..


What can?


And that's when I fell down a rabbit hole that honestly changed everything for me.


Turns out fertility clinics in Denmark and Japan had been asking the exact same question.


And they figured something out.


Specific wavelengths of red light can actually penetrate directly through your skin and tissue.


Like straight through.


No stomach. No gut. No liver. No bloodstream.


It reaches the mitochondria in your eggs directly and activates them at the source.


I know that sounds kind of sci-fi lol but bear with me because the research is actually wild..


Danish fertility clinics used this on women who had already failed conventional treatment for years.


Women who had basically been told this was never going to work for them.


Expected pregnancy rate for these women: 5%.


After the light protocol: 66%.


66%!!


And then Dr. Ohshiro in Japan ran a study on women who had been failing IVF for an average of 9 years.


9 years!!


22% of them got pregnant.


I went and read the actual studies on PubMed myself because honestly I didn't believe it at first lol.


But it was all there.


And then I just sat with it for two weeks trying to figure out if I was being crazy..

"Why Hasn't My RE Mentioned This?"

That was literally the first thing I thought.


And honestly it made me kind of angry when I figured out the answer..


Because the answer is just.. she probably doesn't know.


Not because she's a bad doctor. My RE is amazing.


But reproductive endocrinology is about 10 years behind the research on this stuff.


Which is exactly where it was with CoQ10 ten years ago.


Nobody was recommending CoQ10 for fertility back then either.


Now every single IVF clinic in the country tells you to take it.


Tracy Donegan, who works specifically with fertility patients on photobiomodulation, said something that stuck with me..


"When I first heard about red light therapy I put it down to pseudoscience.

Even the words 'energy medicine' had me raising an eyebrow. How wrong I was."


And she's someone who works in this space professionally!!


So if she was skeptical at first.. I think it's okay that I was too lol.


Your RE not mentioning this doesn't mean it doesn't work.


It just means she hasn't seen the research yet.

So I Needed To Find Something That Was Actually DIRECT..

And that's honestly the word that kept coming back to me when I was researching.


Direct.


Something that could get energy to my eggs without having to survive my entire digestive system first.


And then honestly.. I almost missed it.


I was scrolling through my fertility Facebook group one night and someone had posted about this belt.


I nearly kept scrolling because at that point I was so sick of seeing ads for new products lol.


But something made me stop.


Because she wasn't talking about another supplement.


She was talking about something that worked completely differently.


Something that didn't have to survive your stomach or your gut or your liver to get to your eggs..


It was called OvaPower.


A red light therapy belt you wear directly over your pelvis for 15 minutes a day.


And what got me was this — red light at specific wavelengths actually penetrates directly through your skin and tissue.


Like.. straight through.


No digestive system. No bloodstream dilution. Nothing in the way.


It reaches the mitochondria in your eggs directly.


That's when it clicked for me..


THAT'S what direct actually means.


Now I want to be clear about something because I was skeptical too..


This isn't a generic red light panel you stand in front of across the room.


OvaPower sits directly against your body. Over your pelvis.


Using 660nm and 850nm wavelengths — the exact ones used in the Danish fertility clinic studies.


And your ovaries are only about 3 to 4 centimeters beneath your skin..


So the light actually gets there.


I'm not replacing my CoQ10 with this.


I'm just finally finding a way to actually get the energy to my eggs instead of losing most of it before it arrives..

77 Days On The Couch In My Pyjamas lol

So here's what adding OvaPower to my routine actually looked like..


Nothing dramatic I promise.


Every night after dinner I'd put the belt on while I watched something on Netflix with my husband.


15 minutes.


It's warm and kind of soothing honestly..


Like not in a woo-woo way just.. it felt like doing something.


Something real.


And then I'd take it off and go to bed.


That was it.


I kept taking all my supplements.


Still went to acupuncture.


Didn't change a single other thing about my protocol.


I just added 15 minutes every night and tried really hard not to obsess over whether it was working lol.


Which.. if you're anything like me you know how impossible that is.


But I tried.

What Women Using OvaPower Before Their Retrieval Are Saying

Rachel K. Used it for 90 days before my second retrieval. First cycle I had 1 blast. Second cycle I had 4. I'm not saying this is why but it’s the only thing I did differently. Currently 9 weeks.
👍 61 · 2d ago
Ashley M. Oh my gosh Rachel that gives me so much hope. Can I ask what setting?
👍 12 · 2d ago
Rachel K. 15 minutes every night. Didn't miss a single day. That's it.
👍 38 · 1d ago
Danielle F. I was so skeptical. My husband thought I'd lost it. I showed him the Denmark numbers and he stopped arguing lol. Starting week 3.
👍 29 · 1d ago
Sarah T. I have been using it during my current IVF cycle and I believe it helped improve my egg quality. I got two embryos where my last cycle failed. I am 45.
👍 74 · 5d ago
Megan L. I wish I had found this before my first two cycles. I really do.
👍 93 · 4d ago

If you're already thinking about trying this before your retrieval..
The link is below. They're running 42% off right now.

 GET OVAPOWER — 42% OFF TODAY 

90-Day Money Back Guarantee | Free Shipping | Cycle Protocol Included

The Second Day 5 Call..

Okay so retrieval day comes around.


Same clinic. Same nurses. Same horrible paper gown lol.


They got 5 eggs. Same as last time.


I tried not to read into that.


And then the waiting started.


Day 5.


9:31am my phone rings.


Same number as last time.


I stare at it for like two full rings before I answer.


And she says "Jamie, I have good news"..


And I just completely lost it lol.


Like before she even finished the sentence I was already crying.


Three blasts.


THREE.


Last time: zero.


This time: three.


I dropped to the kitchen floor. Again. Same spot as last time.


Except this time I was sobbing happy tears instead of broken ones.


My husband came running because he thought something was wrong.


I couldn't get the words out.


I just kept holding up three fingers.


He started crying too.


We transferred one of those embryos.


She is 37 weeks old.


Every time I hear her heart beat..


I think about me sitting on my kitchen floor..


Both times I ended up there.


Same floor. Same woman.


Very different reasons.

I Honestly Don't Know If OvaPower Is Why..

I want to be real with you about something.


I'm not a doctor.


I can't sit here and tell you with 100% certainty that OvaPower is the reason my second cycle was different.


I genuinely don't know that.


What I do know is that everything else was exactly the same.


Same clinic. Same protocol. Same supplements. Same acupuncture.
Same me.


The only thing I added was the belt.


15 minutes a night for 77 days before my retrieval.


And I went from zero blasts to three.


Make of that what you will..

My Biggest Safety Concern..

Is it safe during your IVF cycle?


Yes.


660nm and 850nm light is non-thermal and non-ionizing.


It does not heat tissue.


It does not damage DNA.


It is not radiation of any kind.


Zero adverse events across every published fertility photobiomodulation study.


The protocol:


Follicular phase: wear daily directly over pelvis.


Two-week wait: reposition to lower back.


Pregnancy confirmed: stop use.


OvaPower ships with a complete cycle protocol card.


You won't have to figure it out from Reddit threads at midnight.

So Here's Where I'm At Now..

I'm 37 weeks pregnant..!!

 

(Honestly puts a smile on my face typing that haha)

 

And honestly? I don't know if OvaPower is the reason my second cycle was so different from my first.


I really don't.


What I DO know is it was the only thing I changed..


And I know that if I hadn't tried it, I'd be sitting here wondering if that was the thing I missed.


After everything you've just read..


You know the delivery problem is real.


You know the research exists.


You know what 15 minutes a day on the couch actually asks of you lol.


So the only question left is whether you're going to try it before your retrieval or not..


It's $149. One time.


90 day guarantee. If it does nothing for you, send it back and get every dollar back. No questions, no forms, nothing..


The link is below.


I genuinely wish someone had shown me this before my first cycle.


But you're finding it before yours.. and that's what matters.

 GET OVAPOWER — 42% OFF TODAY 

90-Day Money Back Guarantee | Free Shipping | Cycle Protocol Included

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