Endometriosis
Endometriosis Flare-Up: Medical cannabis saves lives, says Mum
Catherine Scott, mum-of-three from Folkestone, has said that without medical cannabis, another endometriosis flare up would have ruined her life, in a recent interview with ITV News.
Because of the huge benefits to her life, Catherine is now campaigning for greater understanding of medical cannabis, but also to reduce the stigma that follows the medication.
At age 21 she was diagnosed with two extremely painful conditions, polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis, which led to her receiving a hysterectomy aged 36.
“If any large amount of pain came on from an endometriosis flare up, I would be blue lighted to have cysts removed immediately,” she said.
“That happened four or five times before it got to the point I was actually losing blood a lot of the month. Then they did a total hysterectomy and removed both ovaries, and put me on HRT.” Catherine’s quality of life felt like it would never change, until she found medical cannabis.
“It’s really changed my life. I’ve dropped so many meds, I feel so much better.
“This can save lives. It’s definitely saved mine,” she said.
Since 2018, medical cannabis has been technically legal and available on prescription, but is only prescribed for some rare forms of epilepsy or multiple sclerosis.
Catherine has had to go through the private clinic route, an expensive option but necessary, as the barrier to access products on the NHS is currently so high.
Endometriosis flare up: Lack of evidence on cannabis
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said that the most significant issue for doctors to prescribe medical cannabis currently is the lack of evidence on the quality, safety, and clinical and cost effectiveness of these products.
“Specialist doctors are allowed to prescribe cannabis-based products, where clinically appropriate and in the best interests of patients. Licensed cannabis-based medicines are funded by the NHS where there is clear evidence of their quality, safety and effectiveness.”
“We are working closely with regulatory, research and NHS partners to establish clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of more cannabis-based products for medicinal use to inform future NHS funding decisions.”
Catherine’s worry for other patients who want too use medical cannabis is that social attitudes haven’t changed at all.
“That needs to change”, Catherine said. “For example my parents, initially, were very anti-cannabis.
“But they can see my reports and the effect it’s had on my endometriosis flare up regularity and they can’t argue with that.
“It has changed their minds completely.”
