History abounds with accounts of women using various forms of cannabis medicine to alleviate many of the symptoms commonly associated with menstruation and menopause, with perhaps the most famous anecdote being that Queen Victoria’s physician once prescribed her cannabis tincture to relieve menstrual pain (or possibly pain associated with the births of any of her nine children).
Now that cannabis is legal in Canada and elsewhere, these accounts continue to increase. There’s little doubt that many women use cannabis to relieve cramps, anxiety, and other afflictions resulting from the ups and downs of reproductive cycles.
It’s clear that people worldwide have been using cannabis to ease various discomforts associated with many conditions for centuries and will continue to do so.
Menstruation and menopause are two of these conditions. The experience of menstruation and menopause is different for each individual, but for many, it is not without some form of discomfort. How could cannabis help?
Menstruation
One of the most common discomforts associated with the menstrual cycle is dysmenorrhea, or cramps, which can vary from mild to intense. A study published late last year in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences found that cannabis reduced the perception of pain associated with cramps in two-thirds of its subjects. It concluded that cannabis shows excellent potential as a treatment for premenstrual cramps.
This is in line with other findings and the experiences of countless individuals showing that both THC and CBD can be very useful for pain management.
Another discomfort faced by many women during their menstrual cycle is depression, often accompanied by anxiety. An extreme form of this is known as premenstrual dysphoria.
A study published in the spring of 2021 looked at self-reported cannabis use from people affected by the condition. While the study didn’t examine the effectiveness of cannabis as a treatment for premenstrual dysphoria, it did show a strong correlation between increased cannabis use and the depressive phase of the menstrual cycle in these individuals, indicating that many people use cannabis to cope with menstrual mood fluctuations.
Menopause
A survey published last September in the Journal of the North American Menopause Society surveyed 131 perimenopausal and 127 postmenopausal subjects on cannabis use. Seventy-nine percent of participants endorsed medical cannabis for menopause-related symptoms, with sixty-seven percent reporting relief from sleep disturbances and forty-six percent reporting relief from mood and anxiety disturbances.
The study concludes that further research is required to determine the most effective cannabis formulations to treat these symptoms.
While these articles provide some interesting context for the lived experiences of the many people who use or have used cannabis to relieve discomforts that can be associated with menstruation and menopause, it’s clear there is still a lot of work to be done to explore the mechanisms of action and ideal formulations for individual conditions.