Clinical Trials
Cannabis For Menopause: May Offer Some Relief For Women
Cannabis for menopause? More women are turning to medical cannabis to relieve the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause.
In a 2020 study, 1 in 4 female veterans used cannabis to treat menopause symptoms.
A recent study, published in the journal Menopause, suggests that the number of menopausal and perimenopausal women using medical cannabis for symptom relief may be much higher than previously thought.
“This study suggests that medical cannabis use may be common in midlife women experiencing menopause-related symptoms,” said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director of the North American Menopause Society, in a press release.
Even so, experts caution that cannabis has not yet been thoroughly tested for its effects on menopause symptoms such as anxiety, depression, sleep, and pain.
“Healthcare professionals should query their patients about the use of medical cannabis for their menopause symptoms and provide evidence-based recommendations for symptom management,” Faubion added.
Through targeted ads about women’s health and cannabis use, more than 250 perimenopausal and postmenopausal women were recruited for the study.
Approximately 83% of study participants reported using cannabis regularly to treat menopause-related symptoms at least once a month.
Cannabis was most commonly used to alleviate sleep problems, mood disorders, and anxiety. 84% of participants reported smoking cannabis for symptom relief, and 78% reported eating edibles.
Cannabis for Menopause: Not a proven therapy
It is important to note that, despite the apparent positive findings, the study has a built-in bias since cannabis enthusiasts were recruited.
“There’s no value in terms of its numbers or validity,” Dr. Felice Gersh, an OB-GYN and founder of the Integrative Medical Group in Irvine, California, told Healthline.
“But it does bring up the important subject about the suffering that women go through in menopause with no assistance from the medical establishment.”
Gersh said that very few of her patients report using cannabis to treat menopause symptoms.
“I call cannabis ‘green medicine,’” Gersh said. “This is a potential tool, but we have no data on efficacy or safety. It really is a medication that should be talked about with a physician, and patients should realize that there are more tested options, like hormone therapy.”
According to Gersh, the new research has possibly overestimated the use of cannabis.
Still, a prior 2020 study suggests that 1 in 4 female veterans used cannabis to treat menopause. In fact, the researchers found that more women were using cannabis to treat menopause symptoms than were using hormone therapy or other traditional types of menopause symptom management.
“This is disturbing because hormone therapy is the most effective therapy we have for menopause symptoms, and the benefits typically outweigh the risks for women in their 50s and within 10 years of menopause,” Faubion told Healthline. “Cannabis, on the other hand, is not a proven therapy for menopause.”
