WEDNESDAY, Sept. 22, 2021 (HealthDay Information) — Sleeplessness. Night sweats. Nervousness. Irritability. Aches and pains.
Would smoking a little bit pot assist ladies take care of these frequent symptoms of menopause?
A very good variety of middle-aged ladies apparently suppose so, as a result of they have been turning to marijuana to assist deal with the change of life, a brand new examine stories.
“Midlife ladies throughout the menopause transition interval of their life are utilizing cannabis, they usually’re utilizing it for signs that are inclined to overlap with menopause,” stated lead researcher Katherine Babyn, a graduate scholar on the College of Alberta in Canada.
There’s only one disadvantage — little to no analysis has confirmed that pot can successfully deal with menopause-related signs, stated Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS).
“This hasn’t been studied formally in ladies going by means of menopause, and so we do not know what the potential advantages or dangers are,” Faubion stated. “That is the hazard right here, is we’re utilizing a drug that has not been studied.”
For this examine, Babyn and her colleagues surveyed practically 1,500 middle-aged ladies within the Canadian province of Alberta.
Two-thirds of the ladies stated they’d used pot at a while, and one-third stated they’d executed so throughout the previous month.
Of the present customers, 75% reported that they’d been utilizing pot for medical functions, regardless that solely 23% had it medically prescribed to them.
They used pot in a variety of varieties, together with edibles (52%), oils (47%), smoked (41%) and vaped (26%).
The merchandise they used mixed cannabidiol (CBD) and THC, which is the chemical in pot that causes intoxication. About 58% reported utilizing CBD/THC blends, whereas 36% used merchandise with excessive THC and 35% used merchandise with excessive CBD.
The most typical menopause-related points they had been making an attempt to deal with with pot included:
- Bother sleeping (74%)
- Nervousness (59%)
- Issue concentrating (58%)
- Irritability (55%)
- Muscle and joint aches (53%).
Throughout the board, ladies who used hashish reported extra menopause signs than those that did not use, “however we won’t set up which means that relationship goes,” Babyn stated.
Faubion stated the findings inform her that ladies who use hashish have worse signs.
“Is it that they’ve worse signs that is driving them to hashish, or is the hashish making their signs worse?” she stated. “We will not actually make conclusions based mostly on this text.”
As much as 74% of the ladies reported enchancment of their signs after utilizing hashish, stated senior researcher Nese Yuksel, a professor of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences on the College of Alberta.
However as a result of it was a common query regarding all signs, “we won’t make any actual affiliation with it,” Yuksel stated. “What we really feel is that ladies really feel they’re getting some profit, however we won’t say that conclusively.”
Faubion, Yuksel and Babyn agreed that till extra medical proof has accrued relating to pot’s advantages, ladies are higher off counting on tried-and-true menopause therapies.
“There’s a want for future analysis to actually examine whether or not hashish could be efficient and protected for managing menopause signs,” Babyn stated.
Faubion agreed.
“Now we have protected and efficient therapies for menopause signs,” she stated. “I might not be directing them to one thing that hasn’t been studied.”
Docs ought to attain out to sufferers to evaluate their signs and steer them towards efficient therapies, Yuksel stated.
“It is a wake-up name to say we have to have these discussions with our sufferers,” she stated. “A whole lot of ladies do sort of fall by means of the cracks so far as even getting their signs assessed and understanding what totally different approaches there are for remedy.”
The examine was introduced Wednesday on the annual assembly of the North American Menopause Society, in Washington, D.C. Findings introduced at medical conferences are thought of preliminary till printed in a peer-reviewed journal.
Extra data
Harvard Medical Faculty has extra about dealing with the symptoms of menopause.
SOURCES: Katherine Babyn, MSc scholar, College of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; Stephanie Faubion, MD, medical director, North American Menopause Society, Pepper Pike, Ohio; Nese Yuksel, PharmD, professor, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, College of Alberta; North American Menopause Society, annual assembly, Washington, D.C., Sept. 22-25, 2021
