A newly published study on the use of cannabis to treat uncomfortable menstrual symptoms finds that administration of a broad-spectrum, high-CBD vaginal suppository was associated with “significantly reduced frequency and severity of menstrual-related symptoms” as well as their negative impacts on daily life.
Participants who used the CBD suppository generally reported less period pain, better mood and lower use of pain medications compared to subjects who underwent conventional treatment.
“This is the first study to assess the impact of a ‘real-world’, commercially-available, high-CBD suppository on menstrual-related pain and discomfort,” or dysmenorrhea, says the report, published in the journal NPJ Women’s Health. The research “extends prior work suggesting [medical cannabis] has promising potential for alleviating menstrual-related symptoms.”
Researchers at the McClean Hospital Imaging Center and Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts recruited 307 people assigned female at birth, 77 of whom were given the vaginal suppository Foria, which contains 100 milligrams of cannabidiol. Participants were asked about various symptoms at baseline and also completed follow-up surveys after one month and two months.
“Vaginal suppositories can be an effective route of administration for cannabinoid-based therapies.”
Notably, it was up to participants in the “quasi-experimental study” whether to request the CBD suppositories or continue treatment as usual.
Nevertheless, while the researchers advocate for the findings to be replicated through randomized clinical trials, they said the study’s outcomes “suggest these suppositories alleviated a range of menstrual-related symptoms, improved daily functioning, and reduced use of analgesics.”
“Most CBD participants reported at least moderate improvement of symptoms,” authors wrote, with 72.9 percent reporting at least moderate improvement after one month and 81.1 percent reporting at least moderate improvement after two months.
Participants also reported more relief when using the suppositories more often.
“Increased suppository use was significantly associated with greater reduction of symptoms,” the report says, “suggesting a potential dose-dependent response.”
“Cannabinoid-based therapies may help to treat menstrual-related symptoms and reduce use of conventional analgesics.”
The findings come on the heels of separate research published in March that concluded that CBD taken orally helped alleviate menstrual-related symptoms such as irritability, anxiety, stress and other measures when compared to participants’ baseline measures.
That study claimed to be the first to examine the effect of cannabidiol on menstrual-related symptoms (MRS) as well as on irritability in general.
“Results revealed reductions…in MRS, irritability, anxiety, global impression of change, stress, and subjective severity scores when comparing baseline to all 3 months of CBD consumption,” wrote authors of that report, concluding that “CBD may be an effective treatment in alleviating MRS.”
While some people have reported using CBD-infused products such as vaginal suppositories to ease menstrual symptoms, far more research around cannabinoids as they relate to sex and gender has focused on sexual pleasure.
New research, for example, has fueled an ongoing push to allow access to medical marijuana as a treatment for female orgasmic disorder (FOD). Advocates have have filed petitions in multiple states—including, most recently, Oregon, Colorado, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Arkansas—to officially list FOD as a qualifying condition for medical cannabis.
The efforts follow separate petitions to add FOD as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana in Ohio, Connecticut, Illinois and New Mexico. The Connecticut proposal has already been formally adopted, while the Illinois move is still pending following preliminary approval. Ohio officials rejected a similar petition, and a New Mexico panel is scheduled to hold a meeting on the issue in October.
Clinical sexologist Suzanne Mulvehill is one of the researchers leading a sort of renaissance in the use of cannabis to treat FOD, a movement she says goes back decades to researchers like sociologist Erich Goode in the 1970s.
In a survey of sexually active women who used cannabis, Mulvehill found that more than 7 in 10 of those who experienced challenges in achieving orgasm reported that cannabis use increased their orgasm ease (71 percent) and frequency (72.9 percent). Two-thirds (67 percent) said it improved orgasm satisfaction.
A separate 2020 study in the journal Sexual Medicine also found that women who used cannabis more often had better sex, though there’s growing evidence that marijuana can improve sexual function regardless of sex or gender.
Numerous online surveys have also reported positive associations between marijuana and sex. One study even found a connection between the passage of marijuana laws and increased sexual activity.
Yet another study, however, cautions that more marijuana doesn’t necessarily mean better sex. A literature review published in 2019 found that cannabis’s impact on libido may depend on dosage, with lower amounts of THC correlating with the highest levels of arousal and satisfaction. Most studies showed that marijuana has a positive effect on women’s sexual function, the study found, but too much THC can actually backfire.
“Several studies have evaluated the effects of marijuana on libido, and it seems that changes in desire may be dose dependent,” the review’s authors wrote. “Studies support that lower doses improve desire but higher doses either lower desire or do not affect desire at all.”
Another paper earlier this year in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, which purported to be the first scientific study to formally explore the effects of psychedelics on sexual functioning, found that drugs such as psilocybin mushrooms and LSD could have beneficial effects on sexual functioning even months after use.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
A newly published study on the use of cannabis to treat uncomfortable menstrual symptoms finds that administration of a broad-spectrum, high-CBD vaginal suppository was associated with “significantly reduced frequency and severity of menstrual-related symptoms” as well as their negative impacts on daily life. Participants who used the CBD suppository generally reported less period pain, better Read More