Does Creatine Cause Acne? No Trial Has Looked, and the Supplement Next to It Has the Record

"Does creatine make you break out" is searched about 7,700 times a month, almost always by someone who started taking it and then got spots. Page one answers with forum threads and a TikTok tag. The honest answer starts with an absence: nobody has studied it. What can be counted is where that absence sits, and what is known about the things that usually come with creatine.

This page reports the records and their limits. It is not medical advice; new or severe acne is for a dermatologist.

The census: what has been studied

None of the 35 PubMed records is a study of creatine supplements and acne. Most turned up because acne and eczema drugs raise creatine phosphokinase, a muscle enzyme with a similar name: the oral JAK inhibitors used for eczema and alopecia, and isotretinoin, where raised enzyme levels are reported in 15–50% of treated patients (Kaymak 2008). That enzyme is a blood test, not the supplement, and the difference is explained on what creatine means in bloodwork.

The one record that touches both is a case series of eight teenagers being treated for acne who developed raised liver enzymes; the authors judged protein, creatine or herbal supplements the likely cause in most, rather than the acne drugs (DeKlotz 2017). It is about the liver, not about acne getting worse.

The trials that recorded side effects

The 2025 pooled analysis of 685 creatine trials lists 49 side effects (Kreider et al.). Acne is not one of them. Skin complications appear in only one trial in the set, a Parkinson's disease study giving 10 g a day for up to eight years, and the pooled table counts them almost identically in both arms (222 placebo, 226 creatine). The FDA database is similar: of 210 reports naming a creatine-branded product (openFDA, data updated 7 July 2026), none lists acne; the skin reactions that do appear are itching (7), hives (6) and rash (3), the pattern of allergy rather than of acne.

Neither source is designed to find acne. A trial records a side effect only if someone reports it and the paper prints it; a consumer report has no denominator. They show no signal, which is not the same as showing no effect.

The hormone argument, and why it is weak

The case for creatine causing acne runs through dihydrotestosterone (DHT), an androgen that drives oil production in the skin. It rests on one study: in 20 college rugby players, DHT rose 56% during a week of loading and stayed 40% above baseline during maintenance, while testosterone did not change (van der Merwe 2009). A 2025 randomised trial of 38 trained men on 5 g a day for 12 weeks found no difference in DHT or in the DHT-to-testosterone ratio between creatine and placebo (Lak et al. 2025); two of its authors declare advisory or consulting ties to supplement companies. Neither study examined skin. The full reading of both is on creatine and hair loss, and the testosterone side on creatine and testosterone.

What usually comes with creatine: whey protein

People who start creatine often start whey at the same time, and whey does have an acne literature:

The case series and the case-control study point one way; the only randomised trial, in men who already had acne, did not find worsening. None of them involved creatine. They matter here for one reason: a breakout that starts with a new supplement routine has more than one candidate, and the candidate with a literature is not creatine. How creatine and whey differ as supplements is set out on creatine versus protein powder.

Other things that change at the same time

Starting creatine usually means a new training phase: more sweat under straps and shirts, a changed diet, sometimes a pre-workout. None of these has been measured against creatine, and this page does not rank them. Anabolic steroids are a separate question from creatine; how the two differ is on is creatine a steroid.

What is not established

• Whether creatine causes, worsens or has no effect on acne. No trial has measured it.
• Whether the 2009 DHT rise was real. One small study found it; one larger randomised trial did not.
• Whether gummy or flavoured creatine products differ. No data separate forms.

The decision about new or worsening acne, including whether to change a supplement, belongs with a dermatologist or GP, who can see the skin and the full list of what a person takes.

Sources and dates

• PubMed searches run 2026-10-06: creatine[tiab] AND (acne[tiab] OR sebum[tiab] OR sebaceous[tiab]) NOT "creatine kinase"[tiab] (33 records) and creatine[mh] AND acne vulgaris[mh] (3); every title read.
• ClinicalTrials.gov API v2, intervention creatine, condition acne: one study returned, which does not use creatine; read 2026-10-06.
• US FDA CAERS via openFDA food/event, products.name_brand:creatine (210 reports), reactions counted case-insensitively; data updated 2026-07-07, read 2026-10-06.
• Kreider RB et al. Safety of creatine supplementation. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2025, PMID 40198156; Tables 2–3 read in PMC11983583.
• van der Merwe J, Brooks NE, Myburgh KH. Clin J Sport Med 2009;19:399–404, PMID 19741313.
• Lak M et al. Does creatine cause hair loss? A 12-week randomized controlled trial. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2025, PMID 40265319.
• DeKlotz CMC, Roby KD, Friedlander SF. Pediatrics 2017;140:e20152940, PMID 28864554. Kaymak Y. Int J Dermatol 2008;47:398–401, PMID 18377609.
• Whey studies: PMID 22988649, 23257731, 24474098, 28326292, 38633058, 38291989.