Does Marijuana Help With The Symptoms Of Menopause?

Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : September 25, 2021

Anxiety. Aches and pains. Night sweats. Irritability. Sleeplessness. Can these common symptoms of menopause be death by smoking a little pot? A new study reports that a good number of middle-aged women have been turning to weed to help deal with the change in the way of living.

Does Marijuana Help With The Symptoms Of Menopause?

Katherine Babyn, the lead researcher said that cannabis is being used by women in midlife who are in the menopause transition of their life. She added that it is being used to help deal with symptoms that overlap with menopause.

Does Marijuana Help With The Symptoms Of Menopause

Katherine is a graduate student at the University of Alberta in Canada. Dr. Stephanie Faubion said that a drawback is posed due to the fact that little to no research exists, which proves that cannabis can treat symptoms related to menopause.

Stephanie is the medical director of the North American Menopause Society. She said that we are unaware of the potential benefits and risks as it has not been studied formally in women who are going through menopause.

She added that the danger is due to the fact that a drug that has not been studied is being used.

Almost 1500 women in their middle ages were surveyed by Babyn and her colleagues for this study. They were from the Canadian province of Alberta. At some point during menopause, 2/3rd of the women had used pot, and 1/3rd said that they had used it within the last month.

Out of the people using it currently, 75% of them said that they had been using it for medical reasons. Only 23% of these people had medical prescriptions to accompany the usage.

The pot was used in a number of ways. 52% of them used edibles, 47% of them used oils, 41% smoked, and 26% vaped. Cannabidiol, which is known as CBD, and THC were the main ingredients in the pot that they smoked. This is what causes the intoxication.

CBD/THC blends were reportedly used by 58% and 36% used products that had high THC and 35% used products that had high CBD.

74% tried to address the menopause-related issue of trouble sleeping, 59% anxiety, 58% difficulty concentrating, 55% irritability, and 53% muscle and joint aches.

Baby said that more menopause symptoms were reported by women who used cannabis than those who did not use it. She added that which way that relationship goes, cannot be established.

Stephanie said that women who have worse symptoms tend to smoke more cannabis, according to the findings. She questioned whether the cannabis was making their symptoms worse or whether the worse symptoms were driving them to use cannabis. She said that conclusions cannot be made based on this one study.

Senior researcher Nses Yuksel said that improvement in their symptoms after using cannabis was reported by up to 74% of the women. She is also a professor of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Alberta.

Yuksel said that no real association cannot be made with it answering a general question relating to all symptoms. She added that they felt that women were indeed getting some benefits, but that could not be concluded conclusively.

It was agreed by Faubion, Yuksel, and Babyn that women were better off relying on tried and true menopause treatments until more evidence is found on the benefits of pot.

Baby said that there is a need to perform research in the future in order to really find out whether cannabis can be a safe and effective way to manage menopause symptoms.

Faubion said that to treat menopause symptoms, safe and effective therapies already exist, and doctors should reach out to patients.


Nikki Attkisson

With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.

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