With so many supplements out there today, many of them are aimed at raising your testosterone. Because of this, I wanted to find out, will creatine raise your testosterone levels?
The short answer is no, creatine is not likely to raise your testosterone levels. There is no significant evidence proving that creatine has any effect on testosterone, neither negatively nor positively.
This being said, there have been some studies that suggest that creatine does have an effect on testosterone. Below, I’ll go over this study and we’ll look at the data.
If you’re looking for a reliable brand of creatine, check out my article about my favorite creatine and why I use it myself. It might not raise your testosterone, but it will help you build muscle.
There’s No Evidence of Creatine Effecting Testosterone
I’ll put it simply; there’s only ever been one study showing that creatine has any effect on testosterone levels in men. Because there’s only one study, creatine is not proved to increase or decrease testosterone.
With the simple answer out of the way, let’s go a bit more in-depth. The one study that was completed looked at levels of Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in rugby players that supplemented with creatine. You should know, DHT is a byproduct of testosterone, but they are not the same thing.
As the chart below shows, creatine had no effect on levels of serum testosterone in the participants of the study. Besides this, DHT levels increased 56 percent during the loading phase and remained 40 percent higher than baseline during the maintenance phase.
Serum T Levels:
| Loading Phase (7 Days, Higher Dose) | No Change |
| Maintenance Phase (After 7 Days, Lower Dose) | No Change |
Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) Levels:
| Loading Phase (7 Days, Higher Dose) | 56 Percent Increase |
| Maintenance Phase (After 7 Days, Lower Dose) | 40 Percent Increase |
If we were only looking at this study, it would be clear that creatine causes an increase in DHT. Unfortunately, because there are no other studies on this, this study does not prove that creatine has an effect on serum testosterone nor DHT levels men.
You probably already know this, but testosterone is the male sex hormone and is responsible for most “masculine” characteristics of men. As I mentioned before, Dihydrotestosterone is not the same as testosterone.
Testosterone in the body is converted to DHT, which is much more potent than testosterone itself. Testosterone doesn’t do much in the body until it’s converted to DHT. If we were to believe this study, we’d know that creatine doesn’t increase the amount of testosterone in your body, but it does increase the amount of testosterone converted into dihydrotestosterone.
With this being said, again, we can’t trust the results of this study. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s the only one that exists. In the end, we won’t know for sure if creatine has an effect on testosterone until there are more studies completed.
For now, assume that creatine will not increase nor decrease your testosterone levels at all. If you’re worried about creatine impacting your testosterone, don’t, because there’s not enough evidence behind those claims.
If you were hoping that creatine would increase your testosterone, read the rest of this article because I’ll go over some things that will raise your testosterone levels other than creatine.
On top of this, some creatine brands claim that their creatine will raise your testosterone, but as you know now, those claims are most likely not true. If you want to learn about what the different variations of creatine and what they actually do, check out my article on the 12 different types of creatine!
Here’s What Will Raise Your Testosterone
While creatine itself may not actually increase your levels of testosterone, there are definitely things that will, and they’re not steroids. All of the things I list below are natural ways to increase testosterone, and you should probably be doing them anyway. Some of these things are:
Lifting Weights:
Lifting weights, and exercise in general, is proved by countless studies to increase your testosterone. Fat itself causes higher estrogen, so keeping fit will help you keep your testosterone levels high.
A Healthy Diet:
Protein, carbs, and fats are all important for maintaining good levels of testosterone. With a bad diet, you risk low levels of testosterone and all the harmful things that come with it. Do your body and masculinity a favor, and eat a healthy diet filled with nutrients. Eating enough protein will not only help your T levels, but help you build muscle in general.
Lowering Stress:
Having too much stress is shown to raise your cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone that inhibits testosterone, meaning your testosterone levels will suffer if you have too much stress. I can go into this much deeper, but I’ll keep it simple; avoid/lower stress to make sure you have good levels of testosterone.
Good Recovery Habits:
Overtraining in the gym also leads to increased cortisol levels. Again, if you have too much cortisol, you risk losing a lot of your testosterone. Make sure not to overwork yourself in the gym, and give your body/muscles plenty of time to recover.
Getting Enough Sleep:
Studies have shown that people who only slept 4 hours a night experienced very low levels of testosterone. Along with this, on average, every extra hour of sleep will boost your testosterone by 15%! Getting enough sleep is also important for muscle building and recovery, so make sure you’re getting enough of it.
Will Creatine Cause Hair Loss?
While it’s definitely possible to lose hair because of creatine, there’s no proven link, and there are no studies directly studying creatine and hair loss. You already know this, but there was one study showing that creatine leads to an increase in DHT levels.
DHT is a byproduct of testosterone and is one of the leading causes of hair loss in men. This being said, there was only ever this one study showing a correlation between creatine and DHT.
Because there was only one study, it really doesn’t prove anything. Everyone should be able to take creatine without hair loss, in almost every case. After all, have you ever known someone or heard of someone that experienced hair loss because of creatine? I know that I haven’t.
While your likelihood of hair loss is pretty low, we can’t rule it out completely. There have not been enough studies completed to really show or prove anything.
Because there haven’t been enough studies on DHT and creatine, we don’t really know if creatine increases DHT or not. If creatine does increase DHT, then it likely would cause hair loss. If creatine doesn’t Affect DHT levels, we still can’t rule it out completely, but it’s less likely to cause hair loss.
To put it simply, we don’t have enough evidence right now to link creatine to hair loss.
Creatine and Testosterone: Sexual Effects
For this section, let’s pretend that creatine does have an effect on testosterone levels. If creatine did increase testosterone you’d experience some of the following things:
- Increased Muscle Mass
- Increased Libido
- More Easily Burn Fat
- Increased Bone Density
- Acne
- More Facial/Body Hair
- Potential Hair Loss
Some of these things may seem to contradict each other. Fortunately, below, I’ll go over each one specifically.
Increased Muscle Mass:
Commonly associated with steroids, more testosterone will increase your muscle mass. While creatine does this on its own, an increased amount of testosterone will boost your muscle mass even more. While creatine and steroids might seem similar, they’re not the same thing. Check out my article on why creatine and steroids aren’t the same when you’re done reading this one.
Increased Libido:
Because testosterone is the sex hormone for males, having more of it will increase your libido or your sex drive. Low testosterone can cause things like low sex drives and even erectile dysfunction, which I’m sure are things you want to avoid. Creatine itself has no proven effect on libido on its own, however.
More Easily Burn Fat:
Testosterone will also have an impact on your ability to burn fat and your metabolism as a whole. More testosterone will make it easier for you to burn fat, although creatine doesn’t do this on its own. If you want to learn more about creatine and weight loss, check out the article I wrote on whether or not creatine will burn fat.
Increased Bone Density:
Low testosterone can cause weak bone density, potentially making it easier for you to break one of your bones. Increased testosterone means that your bones will be stronger than they were before. Again, creatine doesn’t have an effect on bone density on its own.
Acne:
You probably associate acne with puberty, the time when acne is most prevalent and testosterone production increases. If your testosterone levels increase, you may experience acne even as an adult.
More Facial/Body Hair:
Once again associated with puberty, increased testosterone can increase face and body hair, even once you’re far past puberty. I couldn’t find any studies about creatine and facial hair, but I’m assuming it has no effect on this.
Potential Hair Loss:
This might sound like it contradicts what I just said, but increased testosterone can potentially cause hair loss, also known as male pattern baldness. It all depends on your age, as well as your genetics and how your hair follicles respond to testosterone.
Unfortunately, again, none of these things are proven to be caused by creatine. Creatine will help you build muscle, however, but that effect is independent of your testosterone levels.
DHT vs Testosterone: The Difference, and Where Creatine Comes Into Play
I’ve talked about this before, but I’ll go more in-depth here. Dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, is not the same as regular “testosterone”. Testosterone is the male sex hormone, and DHT is a more refined, more potent version of it.
Most of the things you’d associate with testosterone like a more muscular build, deeper voice, and facial hair are actually caused by DHT. Basically, in the body, before testosterone is used it’s converted into DHT.
After this conversion, DHT goes to work developing male or masculine characteristics. Along with the traits I listed above, DHT can also cause things in men like hair loss.
Now, let’s look over how creatine comes into play. In regards to the study that I mentioned earlier, creatine was alleged not to increase testosterone itself, but increase how much of your testosterone is converted into usable DHT.
Even if that study was to be believed, it does not mean that creatine increases testosterone. It only means that more testosterone is able to be turned into DHT.
As I’ve already mentioned, however, we can’t believe only this study. Since it is the only one, we need more studies to be completed in order to prove that creatine has an impact on testosterone and DHT.
Related Questions
Can Creatine Make You Bigger? Yes, creatine can make you bigger. Along with increasing your water weight, which makes you look bigger, creatine makes it easier for you to build muscle and become stronger.
Does Creatine Affect You Sexually? If creatine does increase your testosterone, it will affect you sexually. This means things like a higher sex drive, but potentially even side effects like hair loss.
Does Creatine Increase DHT? Some studies showed that creatine causes an increase of DHT in your body. This being said, not everyone in the study experienced this. Because of this, the study was inconclusive and did not prove that creatine increases testosterone or DHT.
