Creatine for menopause: The supplement every woman over 40 should know about

From night sweats to mood swings, there is a lot to navigate during menopause. While every woman’s experience will be different, there is one common supplement that could help ease the transition.

Creatine is often dismissed as a supplement for heavy lifting and gym bros, but emerging research shows it could have significant benefits for midlife women's health.

Far from just improving muscle strength, creatine can offer powerful support for your bones, your energy levels, and even your brain health.

If you’re looking for a practical, science-backed way to feel more like yourself again, here is everything you need to know about what creatine is, how it works, and why it deserves a spot in your routine.

What is creatine?

Just because you can find it on a shelf doesn’t mean there’s anything unnatural about creatine.

In fact, creatine is a naturally occurring compound that your body makes with the help of 2 amino acids: glycine and arginine [5]. It can also be found in animal foods like red meat, chicken, fish, eggs and dairy.

About half of your daily creatine needs are met by your body, with the rest coming from food or supplements [7].

What does creatine do for the body?

Would you rather have the short answer or the long one? Don’t worry, we’ll give you both.

The short answer is: creatine is an energy-boosting, muscle-enhancing, brain-powered wonder. Some of its proven benefits include [3][5]: 

• Improving muscle function during exercise
• Speeding up muscle recovery after exercise
• Supporting bone density
• Boosting your brain function

The long (and slightly more scientific) answer starts with the fact that 95% of your body’s creatine is stored in the muscles [5].

More than half of this is kept as a compound called phosphocreatine, which acts as a source of energy for your body.

When you start exercising, your body draws on these phosphocreatine stores for energy before it turns to other sources. This can help you work out for longer and push your body harder.

The other 5% is stored in organs and tissues, especially your brain. It has a similar effect here as it does in the muscles – acting as a source of energy.

When your muscle and brain creatine stores are high, then you should notice those benefits that we mentioned before – like performance and recovery.

What does creatine do for women specifically?

In news that will surprise almost no one, the specific effects and benefits of creatine for women's health are still being researched. But the early results we do have are promising.

First, women who take creatine at any age can enjoy the same benefits as men when it comes to exercise performance and muscle recovery.

There are also some specific benefits for women at different ages and life stages. For example, one study found that taking creatine during the luteal phase (just before a period) could help reduce fatigue.

For women over 40, it’s likely that menopause is starting to begin. Most women will go through menopause between the ages of 45-55, with the average age around 51 or 52 [1].

There is good research that taking creatine during menopause can help manage symptoms and health risks. Potential benefits include [3][4][5]:

• Building muscle mass
• Supporting bone density
• Memory and mood benefits
• Better sleep and less fatigue

We’ll explore each of these in more detail next.

Why is creatine supplementation good for menopausal women?

From hot flushes to brain fog, there’s nothing easy about menopause. But maybe there is a way to make it just a little bit easier. Here's how taking creatine can help support your health during menopause.

Muscle mass and strength

As you grow older, the last thing on your mind might be a lean and sculpted body. But muscle isn’t just about looking fit – it’s also about ageing well.

Being able to stand up from a chair or climb the stairs are good examples of daily tasks that actually require a bit of strength.

Muscle loss is common during menopause, but it’s not inevitable. A review of multiple studies on postmenopausal women found one clear result: creatine combined with resistance training could help build lean mass [4].

You might be thinking the strength training is key here, and it is, but creatine still has a role to play. Across the studies, results showed that taking creatine helped increase muscle mass by 1-2% compared to people who exercised without it.

In other words, creatine helps you build muscle mass and strength faster than resistance training alone.

Bone health

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that our bones grow weaker as we get older. For menopausal women, that’s usually to the tune of a 1% drop in bone mass each year [4].

Even we can admit that 1% doesn’t sound like much. But over time, this can raise your injury risk as you gradually lose strength and balance in your later years [3].

Luckily, creatine supplementation may be able to help. The same research review we mentioned earlier also looked at how creatine could support bone health.

It found that while strength training was the best choice for building up bone mass density, taking creatine could help slow down bone mass loss.

Brain function and mood

Menopause can make you feel like a different person sometimes. Where you used to be able to manage multiple tasks at once, these days you feel like you’re dropping the ball with 1 or 2.

First, let us assure you that symptoms like brain fog, low mood, memory lapses and fatigue are pretty normal during menopause [1]. But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with them.

As we mentioned earlier, creatine is an important source of energy for your brain. This means you need plenty of it to be working at full mind power.

Research into creatine and brain function has found that supplements can help improve memory and attention span, as well as reduce mental fatigue [5][6].

If you’ve been feeling particularly stressed, it can help with this too. Think of stress like a big energy draw for your brain. Taking creatine can help replenish some of that lost energy, giving your brain a better chance of working at its full capacity. 

Finally, it’s an unfortunate truth that women are twice as likely to experience mood disorders as men. Some research has found a link between low creatine levels and mood, so that might be something to look into with your healthcare provider [6].

Remember, if it feels like you’re sad or stressed most of the time, you can ask for help. We recommend a chat with your doctor about options like counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy.

Energy and fatigue

The main reason that creatine is so well-known as a supplement to enhance performance is that it provides your body with energy. While that’s usually during a solid gym workout, it can also apply to times when your tank is feeling low – like menopause.

To put it simply, creatine helps increase the amount of energy that your body has to draw on [3]. And the more energy you have in the tank, the less likely you are to feel the effects of fatigue.

How much creatine should women take?

Let’s start with the fact that women tend to have less creatine than men [3]. There are 2 possible reasons for this:

1. It seems like our bodies absorb and store less creatine, especially if you have low muscle mass
2. Women may be less likely to get creatine from their diet

Which makes it all the more important that women consider supplements to help maintain good creatine levels. So, how much should you take? Here are 2 common dosage recommendations.

Build quickly with a loading phase

If you want to ramp up your creatine stores quickly, then you should look into a loading phase. This is a short time where you take a high dose of creatine, before moving to a lower maintenance dose for the long-term [3].

The most common loading dose is 20g of creatine daily for 5-7 days. This dose is usually split into equal 5g doses across the day.

After the loading phase, most people move to a maintenance dose between 3-5g of creatine per day.

Slow and steady daily supplementation 

Some people find a high dose of creatine gets their stomach rumbling. Others simply prefer a slow and steady approach. If that’s more your vibe, then a steady dose of 5g of creatine per day works well for most healthy individuals [4]. 

It takes around 3-4 weeks to build up adequate creatine stores in your body, after which time you can continue to take 5g daily for maintenance.

How to start taking creatine

There are lots of different creatine supplements on the market, which means there’s no single rule on how you should take it. The best advice is to follow the directions of your chosen supplement.

There is also a lot of marketing for creatine right now, so we know it can be hard to find an ideal supplement. So, we have a few tips to help you find an effective one.

Look for creatine monohydrate

There’s more than one type of creatine, but the most well-researched and widely recognised is creatine monohydrate [7].

While you might come across others that are labelled as more effective, that’s not always the case. For example, products like creatine nitrate and creatine ethyl ester are said to be up to 5x more effective, but there’s no strong evidence to back those claims up.

Powders are affordable and effective

You can also find creatine in a lot of different formulas – though not all of them are high quality [7]. 

For example, independent testing of one brand of creatine gummies found that they didn’t actually contain the amount of creatine that was advertised.

Most experts recommend taking oral creatine monohydrate as a powder, which tends to be both affordable and high quality.

Consider dose timing

While you can take creatine supplements at any time, some research suggests taking it after a workout is best for muscle recovery and replenishing creatine stores [5].

Are there any side effects or risks?

In general, creatine is considered a very safe supplement. Most people in the studies report no side effects, whether they’ve been taking creatine for 3 months or 2 years [4].

Some people have minor side effects such as muscle cramps, bloating or diarrhoea. This could be related to high doses, or it might be due to taking creatine without enough water.

One common side effect is actually an increase in water weight. You might notice a small increase from 1-3kg soon after you start taking creatine [5]. Luckily, it’s a short-term change that balances out over time.

Another common concern is that taking creatine is bad for your kidneys. This is because excess creatine becomes a substance called creatinine, which is processed and cleared by your kidneys.

For a while, researchers were concerned that too much creatinine could put you at higher risk of kidney issues. But repeated research has debunked this theory and found creatine supplements to be safe. 

If you do notice any side effects after taking creatine, we recommend having a chat with your doctor. The same goes if you plan on starting creatine and have any underlying health issues.

When to speak to a healthcare professional

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: menopause is not always easy. You're navigating physical changes, hormonal changes and emotional changes too.

It’s important to remember that you’re not facing the menopause transition alone. Whether you’re struggling with symptoms or wondering when it will end, you can reach out for help with your doctor or another qualified health professional.

Some good times to check in include [2]:

• If you’re struggling to lose weight
• Having trouble sleeping
• Feeling more anxious or unhappy than usual
• You want support with specific menopause symptoms

There’s also the fact that some symptoms (like a lack of sleep) can make healthy lifestyle choices harder (like eating well or exercising). When it comes to physical changes like weight gain, we hope you know it’s not about willpower – it’s about biology.

If you're looking for assistance on your weight loss journey, you might like to consider the Juniper Program. You’ll get expert support from a team of health pros, like dietitians, who can guide you through your weight loss journey, including which foods to eat to achieve your goals.

You can check your eligibility here.

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