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A creatine supplement may be a great complement to your exercise routine—it can help to provide energy, increase muscle growth, and speed up muscle recovery. But what about if you’re trying to conceive or pregnant? Here’s what you need to know about creatine and fertility.
What is creatine?
Creatine is a naturally occurring compound in the body made from the amino acids glycine, arginine, and methionine. Most of the body’s creatine stores can be found in skeletal muscle tissue, but about 5% is in the brain, heart, testes, and ovaries. Its main role is to provide a quick energy source for muscles during intense and physical activities (that’s why it’s a popular supplement with athletes and gym enthusiasts).
Does creatine affect fertility?
Creatine makes adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the cell’s main energy source. Both oocytes (eggs) and spermatozoa (sperm) require a lot of energy to develop, mature, and fertilize. Sperm and egg quality depend on mitochondrial health for this process, and creatine is an antioxidant that combats free radical damage associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. Unfortunately, there aren’t any human trials to draw definitive conclusions about the use of creatine for fertility, but we do have some preliminary research that looks promising.
Does creatine affect female fertility?
The already-high energetic demands of oocytes (eggs), increase during development and preparation for fertilization. Creatine acts within the oocytes—a process known as the creatine kinase circuit—to make ATP, ensuring eggs have a constant energy source, making it an important part of egg development. Creatine has also positively impacted IVF rates; when it was present in follicular fluid before fertilization, it helped sperm better find and fertilize the egg.
Interestingly, females with regular menstrual cycles tend to consume significantly more dietary creatine (≥ 13 mg per kg of body mass, per day) than those with irregular cycles. Menstruation is a metabolically demanding process: from fluctuating hormone levels to increased protein breakdown through the cycle, it makes sense that the demands for creatine are high. For females with irregular or absent ovulation, like in the case of PCOS, increasing dietary or supplemental creatine may help to improve cycle regularity.
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Does creatine affect male fertility?
Just like oocytes, sperm cells require high amounts of ATP to function, and creatine helps to make ATP. Without adequate ATP, sperm become susceptible to DNA damage and motility impairment. Some research shows that a creatine metabolism deficiency contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction associated with poor sperm parameters—and that supplementing creatine may help.
While we’re waiting for clinical trials to be conducted—ones that control for dosing, and confounding variables, for example—there is some data showing males who were consuming, or previously consumed, a powder containing both protein and creatine had higher semen concentration and total sperm count than their male counterparts who never supplemented.
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How much creatine should you take?
About half of our body’s daily creatine use can be synthesized by the body by those amino acids we chatted about earlier (glycine, arginine, and methionine). The caveat, however, is that methionine is an essential amino acid—meaning we don’t make it on our own and need to get it via diet or supplementation. Fortunately, since the other half of our body’s daily creatine demands can only be fulfilled by diet, foods like eggs and poultry, meat, and fish contain high amounts of both methionine and creatine, so it’s possible to obtain these nutrients from diet alone.
If you are finding it difficult to obtain 1 to 2 grams of creatine per day through diet alone, or if you are plant-based, supplementation might be something to consider. Numerous studies (with a focus on exercise and performance—not fertility) have found supplementation with creatine monohydrate at a dose of 5 grams per day, to be beneficial.
Is it safe to take creatine during pregnancy?
There have not been any human studies that have examined the safety of creatine supplementation in females during pregnancy, but, animal studies have found no adverse outcomes. As with most of the restrictions during pregnancy, it’s best to talk to your doctor to determine what makes the most sense for your specific circumstances.
