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When it comes to perimenopause and menopause, many experience symptoms that make them uncomfortable and sometimes even downright miserable. Yet more and more people are finding a new way to cope: Some have found that marijuana can help with hot flashes, trouble sleeping, mood swings, and vaginal dryness and pain. While more feel comfortable turning to cannabis for help, there is little research showing whether it works or how to use it.
“The research we have on the use of cannabis, whether it’s marijuana or CBD, to relieve symptoms of menopause is really lacking,” Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, author of the book “Let’s Talk About This- low: an OB-GYN answers all your burns Questions… without you feeling embarrassed about asking the question, ”said TODAY. “Really, we need more research on cannabis and CBD. “
She said that because the United States Food and Drug Administration considers cannabis a Schedule 1 drug (meaning it has no accepted medical use), “it really binds us together. hands and makes the search very difficult “. There are FDA approved treatments, such as hormone replacement therapy, that work well for many symptoms.
“Historically, women’s health, the things that affect women’s health, tend to be under-studied and under-funded, but we know that there are good treatments available to treat the symptoms of menopause, that It’s vaginal dryness, hot flashes, or moodiness, ”Lincoln said. noted. “They are well studied. We know the doses and formulations.
Yet, many may feel that their symptoms are just part of aging and are not seeking help for them. Or, they might try to discuss it but feel like they’re being rejected. It could help people looking for cannabis to help.
Why postmenopausal people turn to cannabis
A 2020 study found that nearly 27% of postmenopausal people used marijuana for symptom relief. Another 10% said they wanted to use marijuana to cope with the symptoms, while only 19% used traditional treatments.
“People going through menopause are like, ‘Well, I don’t know who to turn to’, so they try (cannabis),” Lincoln said. “I feel for them because they feel like no one is listening to them.”
Dr. Lauren Streicher, medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause, has written a series of books on the symptoms of menopause. In her latest, “Hot Flash Hell,” she explains how to use marijuana as a treatment for hot flashes in one chapter.
“What we do know is that there are a lot of women who use cannabis to relieve symptoms of menopause and they really don’t have any direction,” Streicher said TODAY. “There hasn’t been a lot of research done.”
She took a look at what experts know about cannabis and applied it to how some might want to use it for menopause.
“Any information I give is based on the science behind cannabis as opposed to (a study where) we took 1,000 postmenopausal women with hot flashes and we gave half the cannabis,” she said. declared. “We don’t have these studies.
Streicher has also started surveying people to understand what symptoms are causing them to use cannabis. As she continues to collect data, early results provide insight into the signs encouraging cannabis use.
“Overall, the two reasons people use cannabis are hot flashes and sleep and, of course, they go hand in hand,” she said. “It is the hot flashes that, in the majority of cases, prevent women from sleeping at night.
She said she also hoped to understand if a doctor, pharmacist or dispensary worker told them how to take it and what types of products they could use.
“When I say, ‘Who told you what to take? “More than 50% say:” No one. I was just trying to figure it out for myself, ”she said. “There lies the problem. “
For example, people sometimes take edibles, which can take up to several hours to work. When they don’t feel the effects quickly enough, they may flare up a bit more. It could mean that they are taking too high a dose. In other cases, they don’t take enough because they don’t realize how their body processes cannabis.
“No one is telling them that they metabolize it much slower, which will impact not only what they should take, but also how they take it and how much they take,” she said. . “This is the direction I was trying to give in my chapter as best I could to say, ‘OK, if you’re going to do this, I don’t want you to be in trouble. “”
Talk to your doctor first
Experts both agree that if people use cannabis for any reason, they should let their doctors know. It can interact with certain medications and have an impact on how much anesthesia one might need, for example.
“Please tell us,” Lincoln said. “We’re here to help and we don’t judge you when you tell us you’re using this or that. It’s like with any other supplement. It’s super important that we know what you’re on.
She adds that there is one symptom of menopause that people should definitely talk to their doctor about and not try to cure themselves.
“Any bleeding after formal menopause should be known because you are at high risk for uterine cancer,” Lincoln said. “That doesn’t mean it is what it is. I don’t want to scare you into getting treatment. But we have to check you out.
Streicher hopes more people will talk about menopause so that they understand what it is and what treatments are available.
“Their doctors don’t talk about it. They don’t talk about it. And in case they do talk about it, more often than not women have a doctor who is not an expert, ”she said. “You are never done with menopause. You go into menopause and you are in menopause until you die.
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