More Women Using Marijuana Products to Help With Menopause

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 22, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Sleeplessness. Night sweats. Anxiety. Irritability. Aches and pains.

Would smoking a small cookware assistance women woody with these communal symptoms of menopause?

A bully fig of middle-aged women seemingly deliberation so, due to the fact that they've been turning to marijuana to assistance grip the alteration of life, a caller survey reports.

"Midlife women wrong the menopause modulation play of their beingness are utilizing cannabis, and they're utilizing it for symptoms that thin to overlap with menopause," said pb researcher Katherine Babyn, a postgraduate pupil astatine the University of Alberta successful Canada.

There's conscionable 1 drawback -- small to nary probe has proven that cookware tin efficaciously dainty menopause-related symptoms, said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, aesculapian manager of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

"This hasn't been studied formally successful women going done menopause, and truthful we don't cognize what the imaginable benefits oregon risks are," Faubion said. "That's the information here, is we're utilizing a cause that has not been studied."

For this study, Babyn and her colleagues surveyed astir 1,500 middle-aged women successful the Canadian state of Alberta.

Two-thirds of the women said they had utilized cookware astatine immoderate time, and one-third said they'd done truthful wrong the past month.

Of the existent users, 75% reported that they'd been utilizing cookware for aesculapian purposes, adjacent though lone 23% had it medically prescribed to them.

They utilized cookware successful a fig of forms, including edibles (52%), oils (47%), smoked (41%) and vaped (26%).

The products they utilized combined cannabidiol (CBD) and THC, which is the chemic successful cookware that causes intoxication. About 58% reported utilizing CBD/THC blends, portion 36% utilized products with precocious THC and 35% utilized products with precocious CBD.

The astir communal menopause-related issues they were trying to code with cookware included:

• Trouble sleeping (74%)
• Anxiety (59%)
• Difficulty concentrating (58%)
• Irritability (55%)
• Muscle and associated aches (53%).

Across the board, women who utilized cannabis reported much menopause symptoms than those who didn't use, "but we can't found which mode that narration goes," Babyn said.

Faubion said the findings archer her that women who usage cannabis person worse symptoms.

"Is it that they person worse symptoms that's driving them to cannabis, oregon is the cannabis making their symptoms worse?" she said. "We can't truly marque conclusions based connected this article."

Up to 74% of the women reported betterment successful their symptoms aft utilizing cannabis, said elder researcher Nese Yuksel, a prof of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences astatine the University of Alberta.

But due to the fact that it was a wide question relating to each symptoms, "we can't marque immoderate existent relation with it," Yuksel said. "What we consciousness is that women consciousness they're getting immoderate benefit, but we can't accidental that conclusively."

Faubion, Yuksel and Babyn agreed that until much aesculapian grounds has accrued regarding pot's benefits, women are amended disconnected relying connected tried-and-true menopause treatments.

"There is simply a request for aboriginal probe to truly analyse whether cannabis would beryllium effectual and harmless for managing menopause symptoms," Babyn said.

Faubion agreed.

"We person harmless and effectual therapies for menopause symptoms," she said. "I would not beryllium directing them to thing that hasn't been studied."

Doctors should scope retired to patients to measure their symptoms and steer them toward effectual treatments, Yuksel said.

"It's a wake-up telephone to accidental we request to person these discussions with our patients," she said. "A batch of women bash benignant of autumn done the cracks arsenic acold arsenic adjacent getting their symptoms assessed and knowing what antithetic approaches determination are for treatment."

The survey was presented Wednesday astatine the yearly gathering of the North American Menopause Society, successful Washington, D.C. Findings presented astatine aesculapian meetings are considered preliminary until published successful a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

Harvard Medical School has much astir dealing with the symptoms of menopause.

SOURCES: Katherine Babyn, MSc student, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; Stephanie Faubion, MD, aesculapian director, North American Menopause Society, Pepper Pike, Ohio; Nese Yuksel, PharmD, professor, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, University of Alberta; North American Menopause Society, yearly meeting, Washington, D.C., Sept. 22-25, 2021