Women store ~70-80% less creatine in their bodies compared to men. And yet most creatine supplements are targeted to “gym bros”. Creatine can bring great positive effects both to your musculoskeletal system as well as your nervous system. Below are the reasons as to why you as a woman shouldn't fear taking it.
What is Creatine?
Creatine is a compound your body naturally makes from three amino acids (Arginine, glycine, and methionine). ~95% of it is stored in skeletal muscle. Its primary purpose is to provide your cells with rapidly accessible energy during short, high-demand efforts or in organs that naturally require a lot of energy - such as your brain. Your body makes around 1g of creatine per day, while the rest comes from diet, mainly meat and fish. Supplementing creatine increases creatine stores by 20–40%. Creatine monohydrate is the most studied, most effective, and cheapest form of creatine supplementation.
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How does Creatine affect women?
Women consume less creatine in their diets compared to men. Additionally, estrogen can influence the enzymes that synthesize creatine (to maintain energy regulation during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, or menopause). This means that women naturally have less creatine than men, but it doesn't mean that they can't benefit from supplementing creatine just as much as men benefit from it.
When creatine supplementation is paired with resistance training, it can improve your strength, lean muscle mass, and performance.
In menopausal and post-menopausal women, supplementing creatine alongside resistance training helped maintain muscle mass and function. This means that supplementing creatine can keep you stronger for longer.
Some studies show benefits in memory, processing speed, and mood. These results are promising but still preliminary.
Myth busting
You may have heard of several claims dismissing creatine as a valuable supplement for women. Below are a few of the most popular:
"Creatine causes bloating" - False. This is factually incorrect. Most water shifts happen inside your cells, not directly underneath the skin, so would not be visible.
"Creatine makes women look bulky." - False. Several studies show strength gains without large body weight or BMI changes.
"Creatine causes hair loss." - Unsupported. This claim traces back to a single small study that measured a hormone precursor in men, not actual hair loss.
"Creatine damages your kidneys." - False. Creatine does raise blood creatinine, but that's not indicative of kidney damage.
"Creatine is overall unsafe." - Unsupported. There are no known detrimental side effects of long-term creatine use in healthy people, including women.
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Related biomarkers
Before deciding whether creatine is the right supplement for you, take a look at your kidney panel. Creatine breaks down into creatinine - a waste product filtered out by your kidneys. Supplementing creatine can typically increase your blood creatinine by a small amount (around 0.1-0.3mg/dL). Similarly, your eGFR (Estimated glomerular filtration rate) will read slightly lower, after supplementing creatine. Neither of these changes automatically indicates kidney harm, given a healthy baseline measurement before you started supplementing creatine.
Conclusion
In conclusion, creatine can be a great supplement to add to your stack. As a woman, you shouldn't fear taking creatine. The common worries remain unsupported by scientific evidence.
There is a lot of good quality evidence behind creatine, from strength and lean muscle to emerging signals in cognition and mood. It works best paired with resistance training and good protein intake, and it's low-cost and well-tolerated.
Check your baseline kidney markers first, speak to a clinician if you're pregnant, breastfeeding or have kidney disease, and otherwise consider a simple 5g of daily creatine monohydrate.
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