Creatine for Women: The Missing Link to Women’s Health

The cat’s officially out of the bag—creatine is a game-changing supplement for nearly every aspect of health and performance. Many of us, myself included, have believed this for years. I’ve even done the unthinkable hundreds of times: recommended it for women’s health. Understandably, most women aren’t looking to bulk up or retain water, so creatine rarely makes it onto their radar. But as a self-proclaimed nerd, I’ve always known that wasn’t the full picture. And now, the research backs it up. Study after study is showing creatine’s powerful benefits for women—from mental health and muscle growth to bone preservation and even depression. What follows is based entirely on data focused specifically on women’s health.

Creatine and Energy Metabolism

1st up on the list of reasons why women need creatine is the importance of it for energy metabolism. We have to have it. Our bodies must make an average of 1,500mg of creatine every day for optimal function. Suffice it to say that this is sorely lacking in the general female population because without optimal protein intake the necessary amino acids to build creatine are not available. Of course, women should take in more protein. But, they should also consider adding 5-10mg of creatine per day for an easier adjustment to the daily regimen that will also make a noticeable difference in energy production and workout performance within 3-4 weeks. As the creatine intake is consistently managed, it builds up in the muscles and improves performance and recovery. 

Creatine and the Mitochondria

Taking it back to biology for a second. The mitochondria is getting more and more recognition nowadays, and for good reason. The stress of daily life coupled with pollution and all other forms of contamination serves to severely hamper mitochondria function. That means less energy. As I mentioned before, creatine can help to improve this! Now, it won’t fix the reasons for the dysfunction, but it will help improve the health of the mitochondria until we can clean up the outside influences. Creatine does this by way of speeding up the turnover of ATP (our energy substrate) by multiple seconds. I know that may not sound like much, but this happens every 15ish seconds. Speed that up by 3-5 seconds and every minute you’re improving energy production by around 40%! That is a BIG difference, I assure you. 

Muscle Mass, Strength, and Performance

Now to what creatine is best known for: it makes you stronger, faster, and helps you recover quicker so you can train again sooner. And no—it’s not just for men. Women experience these same benefits, with little difference in results between genders under age 60. This is especially valuable for menopausal women, who face increased risk of fat gain and muscle loss. Creatine may help counter both by boosting performance and recovery. In fact, the longer women supplement, the better the results—something few supplements or medications can claim. For those who want proof, try it for a month. Even short-term studies show strength gains in women, and with creatine being so affordable, it’s an easy and worthwhile experiment.

Building Stronger Bones With Creatine for Women

One of the most important things in recent research with creatine has been its potential to help improve bone health along with muscle mass. Now, there is a catch. Exercise, specifically resistance exercise is required for this benefit. Still, the fact that creatine can help to improve bone health over and above what exercise alone can offer, and we know exercise is beneficial on its own for this problem, is a huge help to the post menopausal community. It is well established that estrogen is the key to longer lasting and stronger bones in post menopausal women. However, many women cannot or do not wish to use estrogen for different reasons. Therefore, creatine combined with weight training may be a way to work around this issue and give the women that want to avoid estrogen a better chance at lasting bone health.

Your Brain on Creatine

Some of the most important emerging research on creatine highlights its impact on brain function and mental health. More and more people and practitioners alike are finding out the terrible long term issues with anti depressant use and other neurological affecting agents. It has recently been seen in the research that combining creatine in these established therapies led to better outcomes. This is especially important for females considering a disproportionate number of them are on anti depressant drugs than men. Other neurological benefits include improved cognitive performance, higher intelligence scores, better neurological function in vegetarians—who often have low creatine stores—and enhanced working memory, which may be linked to another key advantage of creatine use in both sexes. The best part? Many of these benefits are often reported within just 1–2 weeks of consistent use at only 5–10 grams per day.

Sleep Deprivation Alleviation

More recent research has also shown that  a large bolus dose of creatine (around 25 grams) the day after a rough night of sleep can help to erase the deleterious effects of sleep disturbance. This is huge news. Up to this point, the only thing we knew could potentially mitigate poor sleep was exercise, which is obviously tough to perform after not sleeping. And while I would never recommend giving yourself a crash course in organic chemistry the night before finals, if (and when) that happens a nice big dose of creatine, with food and a good digestible form such as creapure or creatine hydrochloride, might help to get you through the test and even boost your cognitive performance! This holds utility in jet lag and potentially even daylight savings issues where we see a huge increase in heart related hospitalizations that are likely due to the sleep loss incurred. 

…Fat Loss?

Who knew? Women have a tendency to metabolize carbohydrates at a higher rate than men during exercise. We know now too that when women take creatine with exercise they are more likely to preserve carbohydrate in the blood/muscle as well as protein. This likely means that females preferentially consume creatine as a fuel source which would help maintain brain function and exercise performance with the slower burning of carbs, and maintain muscle size with the reduced usage of protein. Further, studies show that women who use creatine tend to experience increased lipid metabolism during exercise. More muscle and quicker fat burning means less fat overall!

The Potential Pregnancy Benefits

Although research is still emerging and largely based on mouse models, creatine appears to play a key role in pregnancy health. It supports placental function, offers neuroprotection for the developing fetus, and may reduce risks like cerebral palsy and fetal hypoxia. Optimizing creatine levels can improve pregnancy and fetal outcomes. Supplementation isn’t always necessary, but maintaining levels during pregnancy would require about a pound of lean red meat daily—roughly 12 ounces cooked, or two taco bowls or a steak salad with burger patties. Plus, red meat brings other benefits for expectant mothers.

Conclusion About Creatine for Women

Once seen as just for athletes, creatine now offers broad benefits for women’s health. The most common form, creatine monohydrate, may cause loose stools above 10g per day; however, Creapure monohydrate is gentler on digestion. Similarly, creatine hydrochloride absorbs well with fewer stomach issues. Krealkalyn may also be easier to digest, though research is limited. Other forms exist but lack strong evidence. Typically, a dose of 5–10g daily works well, or you can load with 0.15–0.25g per pound for 3–5 days. Once saturated, your body can maintain levels for up to four weeks. Affordable and effective, creatine is worth considering with your practitioner’s guidance.