Effects of Oral, Vaginal, and Transdermal Hormonal Contraception on Serum Levels of Coenzyme Q₁₀, Vitamin E, and Total Antioxidant Activity

Table 1

Age, weight, and serum levels of total cholesterol, coenzyme Q₁₀, 𝛼-tocopherol, and 𝛾-tocopherol, the ratios of coenzyme Q₁₀/cholesterol and 𝛼-tocopherol/cholesterol in women who used the contraceptive pill, vaginal ring, or transdermal patch and control subjects.

	Contraceptive	Contraceptive users
	Nonusers	Pill	Ring	Patch
Variables	Group 1 (𝑛=40)	Group 2 (𝑛=15)	Group 3 (𝑛=5)	Group 4 (𝑛=10)
Age (y)	35.8 ± 7.1	31.9 ± 5.6	33.5 ± 3.5	30.1 ± 7.6
Weight (lb)	146 ± 15	138 ± 13	124 ± 10	138 ± 19
Total Cholesterol (mmol/L)	4.86 ± 1.5	4.30 ± 0.8	4.54 ± 09	4.54 ± 0.9
TAOC (𝑛=5) (mmol Trolox equi./L)	1.33 ± 1.2	1.00 ± 0.41^b	0.85 ± 0.05	0.65 ± 0.04
Coenzyme Q10 (𝜇mol/L)	0.69 ± 0.2^a, b	0.44 ± 0.1^b	0.39 ± 0.1	0.30 ± 0.1
𝛼-Tocopherol (𝜇mol/L)	14.2 ± 3.0^a, b	10.9 ± 2.1	10.9 ± 2.6	10.2 ± 1.6
𝛾-Tocopherol (𝜇mol/L)	2.66 ± 1.2	2.92 ± 0.72	3.28 ± 1.9	3.01 ± 0.7
CoQ10/Cholesterol (pmol/𝜇mol)	143.0 ± 47^c	102.3 ± 26	85.9 ± 16	66.0 ± 20
𝛼-Toco/Cholesterol (nmol/𝜇mol)	2.9 ± 0.6	2.5 ± 0.5	2.4 ± 0.6	2.6 ± 0.4

Values are mean ± SD.
^a𝑃<.001, group 1 versus 2, 4; and ^b𝑃<.05, group 1 versus 3; group 2 versus 4; and ^c𝑃<.05, group 1 versus 2, 3, 4, by Student’s 𝑡-test.