Creatine and the Menopause Brain: Inside the CONCRET-MENOPA Trial
Most creatine trials measure what a body can lift. This one measured what a brain can do, in women going through menopause, and it measured whether the creatine actually reached the brain at all.
It is small. It used a form and a dose that are not what most people take. Both of those things are worth knowing before you read the result, so we are putting them up front.
THE STUDY
- Title: The Effects of 8-Week Creatine Hydrochloride and Creatine Ethyl Ester Supplementation on Cognition, Clinical Outcomes, and Brain Creatine Levels in Perimenopausal and Menopausal Women (CONCRET-MENOPA): A Randomized Controlled Trial
- Journal: Journal of the American Nutrition Association, 2026
- Lead group: Applied Bioenergetics Lab, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
- Design: Randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trial, four arms, registered as NCT06660004
- Read it: PubMed 40854087
WHO WAS IN IT
36 apparently healthy perimenopausal and menopausal women, mean age 50.1 years. Menopausal was defined as twelve consecutive months without a cycle and no other cause. Perimenopausal meant still cycling but reporting at least one symptom such as hot flashes, sleep disturbance, mood swings, or trouble concentrating.
WHAT THEY TOOK
Eight weeks, four groups, and this is the part that gets misread most often. Nobody in this trial took a standard 5 gram scoop of creatine monohydrate.
- Low dose: creatine hydrochloride, 750 mg a day
- Medium dose: creatine hydrochloride, 1,500 mg a day
- Combination: creatine hydrochloride plus creatine ethyl ester, 800 mg a day
- Placebo
The whole point of the design was to test whether low doses of more soluble creatine forms could do something useful, rather than to test the familiar dose.
WHAT THEY FOUND
The medium dose, 1,500 mg a day of creatine hydrochloride, was the arm that separated from placebo.
- Reaction time improved versus placebo, reported as 1.2 versus 6.6 percent, p < 0.01
- Frontal brain creatine rose versus placebo, reported as 0.9 versus 16.4 percent, p < 0.01. This is the interesting one, because it shows the supplement reaching the tissue being measured
- Serum lipid profile shifted favorably, p < 0.05
- Mood swings showed what the authors call a potential advantage at p = 0.06, which did not clear the usual bar for significance
- Tolerance: all interventions were well tolerated with no severe adverse effects reported
The authors' conclusion, in their words, is that this protocol "may be a promising, safe, effective, and practical dietary strategy" for these outcomes. May be. We are quoting the hedge because the hedge is the finding.
WHAT IT DOES NOT SHOW
- 36 women, four groups. That is roughly nine people per arm. A result this size is a signal worth following, not a settled answer
- Different molecule, different dose. This trial used creatine hydrochloride and creatine ethyl ester in milligrams. It is not a test of creatine monohydrate at the doses most research uses, and it does not transfer across by assumption
- The paired percentages are not labeled. The abstract gives reaction time as 1.2 versus 6.6 percent and brain creatine as 0.9 versus 16.4 percent without spelling out which figure belongs to which arm. Read those as the size of the gap, not as a labeled per group result
- Mood was not a win. p = 0.06 is a trend. Anyone reporting this as creatine improving menopausal mood is reporting something the trial did not establish
- Eight weeks. Long enough to move brain creatine, not long enough to say anything about a year from now
WHY IT IS ON THIS SHELF
Because it answers a mechanical question that keeps coming up: does creatine actually reach the brain in women at this life stage, or does it stop at muscle? In this trial, measured directly, frontal brain creatine went up.
What we make is different from what was tested here. Each four gummy serving of Vybrance Labs creatine gummies delivers 5g of creatine monohydrate, the form and dose the bulk of the research uses, alongside B12 and taurine. We are posting this trial because it is good science on a question our customers ask, not because it tests our bag.
For the wider read on creatine and the brain, The Lab has why women have less creatine in their brain.
see you in the wild!
-Lawrence
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Nothing on this page is medical advice. Reference: PMID 40854087, DOI 10.1080/27697061.2025.2551184.
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