The Supplement we should all be using.

There aren’t many supplements we recommend across the board, but creatine is one of them.

For a long time, it’s been written off as something for bodybuilders, which has kept a lot of women from using one of the most effective, well-researched supplements available. The reality is that creatine isn’t just about muscle. It supports strength, performance, brain health, and longer-term things like bone integrity, making it relevant across your entire lifespan - from your training years through perimenopause and beyond. And to clear up the usual concerns: it won’t make you bulky, it doesn’t cause fat gain, and most people don’t experience bloating when it’s used properly.

Creatine is a compound your body already stores in muscle, where it helps produce energy quickly. During short, high-intensity efforts (like lifting weights, sprinting, or interval training) it helps regenerate ATP, your body’s main energy source. In practical terms, that means you can produce more force, sustain effort for longer, and recover better between sets. This is particularly relevant for women because we naturally store less creatine than men and often consume less of it through diet, since it’s mostly found in red meat and seafood. When you supplement, those stores increase, which is why many women see meaningful improvements.

In a training context, creatine is most useful for resistance work, HIIT, sprinting, and any repeated high-intensity efforts. It helps maintain output and delay fatigue, so overall training quality stays higher. Research consistently shows improvements in strength, power, sprint performance, and total training volume. That doesn’t mean you suddenly become “bulky”—it simply means you have the capacity to train harder and recover well enough to keep progressing. What your body does with that depends on your overall training, nutrition, and recovery.

As you move through perimenopause and into menopause, this becomes even more important. Declining estrogen can affect muscle mass, recovery, and strength, making it easier to lose muscle and harder to maintain training intensity. Creatine shifts from being a performance enhancer to something more foundational here. When combined with resistance training, it helps maintain lean muscle, improve strength, and support your ability to keep training consistently—essentially helping you hold onto the physical capacity that protects your body long-term.

It also plays an indirect but important role in bone health. Creatine doesn’t act directly on bone, but it supports better training—stronger muscles, higher-quality sessions, and more consistent resistance work. That increased mechanical load is what stimulates bone to maintain density and strength over time, which becomes increasingly important with age.

Beyond the physical side, creatine is also stored in the brain, where it helps support energy availability. The brain is highly energy-demanding, and emerging research suggests creatine may play a role in cognitive function, stress resilience, and mood. There’s even evidence showing improved outcomes when it’s used alongside standard treatments for depression. While this area is still developing, it’s clear creatine isn’t just a physical performance supplement—it has broader neurological relevance as well.

In terms of how to use it, simplicity wins. Creatine monohydrate is the most researched and reliable form, and you don’t need large doses—3–5 grams per day is plenty, with the option to start lower if you prefer. Consistency matters far more than timing, and it can be mixed into pretty much anything since it’s tasteless. If quality is a priority, choosing a third-party tested product is a good idea.

At the end of the day, creatine is one of the few supplements that consistently does what it promises. It supports how you train, how you recover, and potentially how you think and feel. And for women in particular, it fills a gap that’s often overlooked. If you’re training and you care about strength, performance, and long-term health, it’s a very solid addition to your routine.