Meno matters
MENOPAUSE
A new study shows lots of women are using cannabis to manage menopausal symptoms. Read on to find out why this formerly banned substance is having a meno moment!
MENOPAUSE IS A monumental time in a woman’s life. A time that – when out the other side – many say is deeply liberating and joyous, enabling you to enter into a new phase with different priorities and a renewed sense of self. However, although there’s hope at the end of the tunnel, it’s not always such an easy ride!
The list of possible symptoms is long, from the better known hot flushes and emotional fluctuations, to the less common “burning tongue”, skin conditions, brain fog and loss of bone density. The fact is, menopause is a process that fundamentally changes you – in many ways. Levels of the hormones oestrogen, progesterone and serotonin plummet, in turn having a dramatic impact on the vast range of bodily processes that they control.
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is the main treatment option for women who are really suffering, but studies in recent years have shown a steep decline in its use due to potential safety concerns. There are many herbal remedies millions of women still turn to, going back to Ayurvedic wisdom with shatavari root and what’s called a “vata-pitta” diet – which aims to rebalance the system, and reduces heat and anxiety – and putting trust into Western and Native America herbal remedies, such as black cohosh and red clover.
One plant that has also been used for relief from menopausal symptoms for millennia, but thanks to stigma often gets overlooked, is cannabis.
In the US, where cannabis is now legal across 38 states, a huge number of women use cannabis as their medicine for menopause. A brand new study, published in The Journal of The North American Menopause Society, surveyed 250 menopausal participants and discovered a staggering 86.1 per cent use the plant, with 78.7 per cent saying they endorse cannabis use to treat menopause symptoms. The most common modes of use were smoking (84.3 per cent) and edibles (78.3 per cent), and the top menopause-related symptoms for cannabis use were sleep disturbance (67.4 per cent) and mood/anxiety (46.1 per cent).
We can access medical cannabis in the UK – and plenty of women already do to treat menopausal symptoms.
Since being legalised in 2018, medical cannabis is available on prescription on the NHS as well as from a wide range of private clinics. Unfortunately, for reasons not fully understood by patients and the medical community, there have only been three cannabis prescriptions given on the NHS, despite the fact that any specialist consultant can prescribe any cannabis p
