Creatine and Perimenopause: What Does It Have to Do With Brain Fog?
What Is Creatine?
Creatine has been getting a lot of attention lately as the “must-have” supplement for weight training and exercise. But a lot of my female clients, particularly those entering or deeply entrenched in perimenopause, have been asking me a different question:
Can I use creatine for perimenopause symptoms like brain fog and poor memory?
The answer is interesting. And while we still need more research, there is enough emerging evidence to make creatine a pretty compelling supplement to consider during this stage of life. Let me explain…
So, what exactly is creatine?
Creatine is a compound that your body naturally makes and stores, primarily in your muscles and brain. Its main job is to help these tissues produce energy quickly.
Your body makes creatine from three amino acids: glycine, arginine and methionine.
When you eat protein, your body breaks it down into amino acids. It can then use these amino acids – glycine, arginine and methionine – to make creatine. We require about 2 grams per day (assuming demands are not increased by other issues in the body). Men are able to produce about 1 gram, whilst women create about 70-80% less, approximately 0.2-0.3 grams a day.
We can produce some of our own creatine, mainly via the liver and kidneys, but the remainder we must get from our diet, particularly from meat and fish. This is where things get interesting for vegetarians and vegans. Plant foods contain very little creatine, so people, like myself, who don’t eat meat or fish may not be consuming enough creatine to make up the difference.
We usually think of creatine as a muscle gain supplement.
Creatine has become almost synonymous with weight lifting, and for good reason.
Creatine helps your muscles rapidly regenerate ATP, which is essentially the body’s immediate energy currency. This is particularly important during short, intense bursts of exercise, such as lifting weights or sprinting.
In practical terms, creatine can help you perform more repetitions or maintain your performance across repeated bouts of intense exercise. It can also support recovery between those efforts.
This doesn’t mean creatine is going to suddenly make you better at a long cardio session. Its benefits are most apparent when your muscles need quick bursts of energy and this is where we find the benefits for our brain too.
Your brain uses the same energy system. Your brain is an extremely energy-hungry organ and can store and use creatine too.
Thinking, remembering, concentrating, learning, solving problems and regulating emotions all require energy. In fact, the brain accounts for roughly 20% of the body’s energy use, despite making up only around 2% of your body weight.
Creatine helps the brain regenerate ATP in much the same way it does in muscle.
So if creatine helps your muscles meet increased energy demands, could it also help your brain when its energy demands increase?
This is where the research gets really interesting.
When might your brain need more creatine?
The strongest evidence for cognitive benefits from creatine appears to be when the brain is under some form of metabolic stress.
This includes situations such as:
- Sleep deprivation
- Intense mental workload
- Depression
- Ageing
- Mild traumatic brain injury
- Neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease
In these situations, the brain may have greater difficulty meeting its energy demands. Creatine may help brain cells maintain their energy supply.
And this brings us to perimenopause.
What does creatine have to do with perimenopause?
If you’ve been through perimenopause, or you’re currently experiencing it, you’ll probably understand why this caught my attention.
As oestrogen declines, a number of changes occur throughout the body, including changes in muscle function, energy metabolism, sleep, recovery and brain function.
And then there is the mental load. Many of the women I work with are juggling work, children, relationships, ageing parents, household responsibilities and approximately 47 other things all at the same time. Add to that disrupted sleep, hormonal fluctuations and more….the brain can be under a pretty significant energy burden.
This is one reason creatine may be particularly interesting during perimenopause.
During perimenopause, oestrogen levels decrease. Creatine isn’t replacing oestrogen, and it isn’t a treatment for perimenopause. But it may help support some of the energy systems that are affected as oestrogen levels change.
What does the research show?
Interestingly, creatine doesn’t appear to have the same cognitive effect in everyone.
Studies in young, healthy, well-rested adults have often found little or no improvement in cognitive performance with creatine supplementation.
And this actually makes sense.
If your brain is already well supplied with energy and isn’t under any particular stress, there may not be much room for creatine to make a noticeable difference.
The potential benefits appear to become more relevant when energy demands are higher or the brain is under stress.
This is why researchers are increasingly interested in creatine for areas such as memory, attention span, processing speed, mental fatigue, sleep deprivation and cognitive ageing.
What about women and declining oestrogen?
A review examining creatine in women across the lifespan highlighted some of the changes that can occur as oestrogen begins to decline. These include changes in muscle energy production, muscle building and repair, brain energy metabolism, inflammation, cellular damage and recovery. The authors suggest that creatine may help compensate for some of these changes by increasing the availability of energy to the brain and muscles.
Again, it is important to be clear about this:
Creatine does not replace oestrogen.
What it may do is help support some of the downstream systems that are affected by changes in oestrogen.
And we’re starting to see research looking specifically at this.
A 2025 UK study found that creatine supplementation combined with resistance training in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women was associated with improvements in muscle strength, sleep quality, cognition, energy and overall quality of life.
There is also emerging research suggesting that creatine, when combined with resistance or weight-bearing exercise, may have benefits for bone health and could potentially help reduce bone fracture risk. This is particularly interesting given the increased risk of bone loss and osteoporosis following the decline in oestrogen.
So, does creatine help with brain fog?
There is not yet enough research to say definitively that taking creatine will eliminate brain fog, improve memory or prevent cognitive decline. But the research is moving in an interesting direction.
We know creatine plays an important role in energy production in both the brain and muscles. We know that the brain can be particularly vulnerable when energy demands increase or energy availability is compromised.
We know that sleep deprivation, ageing and significant mental workload can place additional metabolic demands on the brain. And we know that the hormonal changes of perimenopause can affect sleep, cognition, muscle function, recovery and energy metabolism.
Put all of that together, and creatine becomes a very interesting nutritional tool to consider during this stage of life.
Particularly for women who are experiencing poor sleep, significant mental demands and reduced exercise recovery.
What about vegetarians and vegans?
This is an area that I found really interesting.
As creatine is mainly found in meat and fish, does that mean that vegans and vegetarians are not gaining any through the diet? As discussed above, creatine is made from combining the 3 amino acids glycine, arginine and methionine. These amino acids are definitely found in a vegan diet, but the down side is that they then need to be put together to make creatine. People who eat meat and fish are consuming creatine in its full form and thus have it all ready to go.
It is for this reason that people consuming a vegan or vegetarian diet, especially women (who in general have a decreased ability to create creatine), may not be able to consume the necessary amount of amino acids to make up the required levels to maintain muscle and brain stores.
How much creatine do you need?
At the moment, there isn’t an established “brain-specific” dose of creatine.
Most research looking at muscle benefits uses around 3–5 grams per day, which is currently the standard supplementation range.
The brain takes up creatine more slowly than muscle, so there is still research to be done on whether different doses or longer periods of supplementation are needed to achieve optimal cognitive benefits.
For now, 3–5 grams per day of creatine monohydrate is the most commonly studied approach.
So, am I taking it?
Yes. I’ve started supplementing with creatine myself, in my morning breakfast smoothie.
I’m vegan. I’m also at an age where I’m starting to think more seriously about supporting my muscle and brain health as I move through this ‘next stage of life.’ Frankly, I like the idea of giving my brain a little extra help.
My memory has never been my greatest strength…so if creatine can help me maintain my cognitive function and support my muscles, I’m quite happy to give it a seat at the table.
What can you do now?
If you are approaching or experiencing perimenopause, feel that you are experiencing brain fog, or are vegan or vegetarian, feel free to contact me. You can book a standard online naturopathy consult here, or I offer perimenopause consults and packages, here. – Tara