Is Creatine Safe During Pregnancy?

What is creatine?

Creatine is a naturally occurring substance found in the body, primarily concentrated in the muscles. Creatine increases the number of muscular levels of phosphocreatine which is necessary for the production of ATP, the energy molecule. As such, creatine is used by the body to produce energy and is very important during physical activities. It is obtained from dietary sources such as red meat, fish, and chicken.

As a dietary supplement, creatine is often taken by athletes, bodybuilders, and other fitness enthusiasts to increase the creatine levels in the body (particularly in the muscles) to help increase muscle strength, endurance, and size, but it is also used by people who are looking to improve their overall physical performance or support their fitness goals.

NOTE: Creatine is not a steroid. Creatine is a completely natural substance found abundantly in the body. In addition, creatine is structurally different from the steroid class of drugs.

Improve fertility

Some studies link altered creatine metabolism with reduced fertility in women. Reduced fertility predisposes women to poor outcomes of pregnancy.

Women with ovarian endometrioma, a sign of endometriosis that is considered a serious threat to female reproductive health, have significantly reduced creatine levels compared with control women. Indeed, creatine deficiency is linked withreduced fertility in women and poor pregnancy outcomes.

Improve mood, anxiety, and depression

In fact, research shows that depression is negatively associated with dietary creatine intake.

Specifically, dietary creatine intake effectively reduces depressive symptoms in female adolescents and adults in combination with antidepressant therapies. Other studies also reported improvement of stress, mood, anxiety, as well as mental fatigue.

How much creatine should women take?

As recommended by the International Society of Sports Nutrition, safe and effective dosage is in the range of 3 to 5 g of creatine per day.

They also recommend a creatine loading phase where one takes approximately 20 g of creatine for 5–7 days at the start of creatine intake to reach the muscle creatine threshold faster. This dose is typically divided into four or five 5 g servings throughout the day. Other experts point out that creatine loading is unnecessary unless you’re an athlete or you want faster results.

Meanwhile, depending on health goals or conditions being treated, optimal dosages may vary.

Creatine Healthy for Baby?

Creatine has many actions likely to benefit the fetus and newborn, because pregnancy is a state of heightened metabolic activity, and the placenta is a key source of free radicals of oxygen and nitrogen.

There is growing evidence that creatine may be essential for energy production in a range of reproductive tissues, from sperm and the endometrium to the placenta, the muscle layer of the uterus (the myometrium) crucial to labor, as well as for the growing and developing baby.

There is also evidence that increasing fetal levels of creatine before birth via maternal dietary supplements may help minimize injury to the baby when there are complications during labor that reduce oxygen delivery to the unborn baby. This research has focused on protecting the newborn brain and reducing the risk of lifelong conditions such as cerebral palsy.

How safe is it to take creatine during pregnancy?

Given the benefits for mother and baby, Dr Stacey Ellery and her team are investigating the optimal level of creatine during pregnancy, including creatine supplementation.  This is the first safety study of creatine conducted in human pregnancy.

The team recently examined all available literature for non-pregnant women. They studied the data from 951 females aged from 16 to 67 years who were treated with creatine for up to a year in clinical trial settings and found no evidence of death or serious adverse events due to creatine. Nor was there an increase in milder side effects, such as an upset stomach.

Understanding the importance of establishing safety for a vulnerable population like pregnant women, the team has also gone to efforts to assess the mother’s and offspring’s wellbeing from more than 15 years of data in pre-clinical studies to show no adverse effects of supplementing the mother’s diet with creatine during pregnancy.