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I didn’t expect much to change when I turned 40, and at first, I was right — until I wasn’t. About six months after the big 4-0, I started to feel just a little bit … off. I was suddenly yawning a lot more in the afternoon. My brows and lashes, which had always been rather full, began to get patchy. And I kept having these brain blips, as I like to call them. I’d be in the middle of telling a story, and then I’d get stuck trying to remember a name or a basic word. While none of that was fun, the most unfun change of all was a noticeable difference in what I could lift.
I’m a regular weight trainer; it’s a big part of what got me back in shape after gaining 20 pounds during the pandemic. I practice progressive overload — gradually upping how much you lift to keep achieving those sweet, sweet muscle gains. However, one day, the weights I’d been using for shoulder presses suddenly felt much heavier. I quickly did some research and realized it could be muscle loss due to perimenopause. When I asked a registered dietitian if there was anything I could do to mitigate that, she pointed me to creatine.
“We face muscle loss and declining strength the older we get,” says Ashley Kitchens, MPH, RD, of Plant Centered Nutrition in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Creatine can help counter that. Research shows us that creatine can support muscle strength and preserve lean muscle mass when combined with resistance training.”
It’s generally recommended to start taking 3 to 5 grams (g) of creatine monohydrate a day, which is what I did (but always check with your healthcare provider first). I went with this creatine monohydrate micronized powder by Orgain because it had good reviews and was relatively affordable.
According to Kitchens, you can do what’s called creatine loading, which “involves taking a large amount of creatine (usually 20 g per day) for five to seven days.” Kitchen explains that this approach “allows the creatine to saturate your muscles, [then] after the seven-day period, you can drop down to a maintenance dose of 3 to 5 g per day.” I opted not to do this type of loading because I have a sensitive stomach, and if you’re not used to creatine, it can cause minor stomach upset in large doses.
I loved how easy this creatine powder was to incorporate into my life. It dissolves in water within 30 to 60 seconds and has no real taste. I typically take it right before or right after a workout, but there’s really no better or worse time. “Consistently taking creatine is more important than when you take it,” says Kitchens. “Research shows that taking creatine post workout may be advantageous for body composition, but again, consistency is what’s key.”
Within about a month of consistently taking creatine, I started to feel stronger. Slowly but surely, I was able to lift heavier again. I also had more stamina, so I started doing longer, more intense workouts. Beyond that, my energy stayed high throughout the day, and I just generally felt better. Even my brain fog started lifting.
It seemed magical, but there’s a real scientific reason for the results I was seeing. “Women have 70 to 80 percent lower baseline creatine stores than men, due to lower creatine production and intake,” says Avery Zanker, RD, practicing with Health Casa in Ontario, Canada. “This can make the benefits of creatine more noticeable for women. Creatine production and metabolism are impacted by sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone in ways that suggest that creatine may be particularly influential during menstruation, postpartum, perimenopause, and postmenopause.”
I recently learned it can also help me maintain bone density, which can diminish with age. Not like I needed another reason to take creatine, but preventing osteoporosis seems like a pretty important one. Needless to say, the overwhelmingly positive benefits I’ve already experienced will keep me on creatine for the foreseeable future.
Other Creatine Supplements to Consider
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Creatine comes in many varieties, and while the one I used worked well for me, you might prefer a different form. Here are a few others I recommend:
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Ally Hirschlag is an award-winning journalist with over 10 years of experience editing and writing health, fitness, beauty, lifestyle, and science content. Her work has appeared in...
Ashley Ziegler is a full-time writer with extensive experience covering women’s health, babies' and kids' health, mental health, and wellness. Her work has appeared on websites inc...
Katie Tuttle is an editor and writer specializing in food, nutrition, and product testing. Her work has appeared in EatingWell, Food & Wine, The Spruce Eats, and Real Simple. She h...
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Resources
Lanhers C et al. Creatine Supplementation and Upper Limb Strength Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine. January 2017.
Longobardi I et al. A short review of the most common safety concerns regarding creatine ingestion. Frontiers in Nutrition. November 30, 2025.
