Every year, more than 2 million women reach menopause, which is defined as the end of their menstrual cycle. In other words, they experience the natural cessation of their reproductive functions, and this phenomenon is often accompanied by various discomforts: night sweats, hot flashes, mood swings… Medical cannabis orCBD, however, could offer a natural alternative for relieving these symptoms!
Promising studies
In California, researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center surveyed a group of 232 women, whose average age was around 56, as part of a study on the health of female veterans. The purpose of this study was to examine in detail how they cope with menopause.
More than half of these women reported experiencing bothersome symptoms related to menopause: 54% of them experience hot flashes and night sweats, 27% suffer from insomnia, and 69% reported genitourinary symptoms.
Across this entire sample, 27% of women reported using or having used cannabis—and therefore CBD—to manage these symptoms.
10% of the women in this study also expressed an interest in trying cannabis in the near future to help managetheir menopausalsymptoms. Furthermore, the study also found that women were more likely to turn to cannabis than to traditional menopause treatments, such as hormone therapy.
Only 19% of the women in this panel reported using a more traditional method of managing menopausal symptoms, such as hormone therapy.
A healthy and natural alternative
According to Carolyn Gibson, the lead author of this study: “These findings suggest that cannabis use to manage menopausal symptoms may be relatively common.”
For his part, Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, welcomes this study: “Although the therapeutic use of cannabis by veterans is not entirely uncommon, this is one of the first studies to highlight veterans’ use of marijuana for this specific condition.” He also notes that, given the relatively high rate of cannabis use among this group of women, scientists would be well advised to explore this avenue, paying particular attention to its safety, efficacy, and prevalence among women going through menopause.
Many researchers seem to share this view. Indeed, despite very promising results, the sample size of this study remains relatively small, and it would therefore be wise to continue research on CBD using larger sample sizes.
Finally, NAMS Medical Director Dr. Stéphanie Faubion noted that this study highlighted a somewhat concerning trend, as well as the need for further research into the potential risks and benefits of cannabis use for managing menopausal symptoms.
