Cannabis-infused vaginal suppositories seem to reduce sexual pain in women after treatment for gynecological cancer, according to a new study. Online exercises in so-called “mindful compassion,” meanwhile, helped to improve sexual function—including arousal, lubrication and orgasms.
Combining the two, however, seemed to offer the patients the most benefit.
“The outcomes favoured the [combined] group,” says the study, published this month in a special issue of the journal Medicina, “in which sexual function, levels of sexual arousal, lubrication, and orgasm increased, and the levels of sexual pain decreased.”
The combined group also saw improvements in measures of mindful compassion, sexual self-efficacy as well as general well-being and quality of life (QOL), authors noted.
A fourth, control group—in which participants received only care as usual—experienced no differences in sexual functioning, the report says, although “well-being and sexual self-efficacy diminished” over the study period.
“Both cannabis suppositories and mindful compassion appear to be effective interventions for women after gynaecological cancer treatment with these variables,” the study concludes. “The cannabis suppositories appeared to address sexual pain, and mindful compassion better mediated the analgesic properties of cannabis to support sexual function, well-being, sexual self-efficacy and QOL.”
“Cannabis mediated the effects of mindful compassion and supported well-being, sexual self-efficacy, and quality of life.”
The cannabis suppository may have also acted as a sexual lubricant, combining with the drug’s analgesic properties to improve pain management, authors said.
The five-person, UK-based research team behind the new findings represent London Metropolitan University, the East and North Hertfordshire National Health Service (NHS) Trust, Regent’s University London and Imperial College London.
The study followed 83 people, dividing them into four groups: a cannabis-only group, a mindful compassion group, a combined cannabis-and-compassion group and a care-as-usual group.
In the cannabis-only, group, 7 in 10 (70.6 percent) said they felt their sexual functioning was the same as without the suppository, according to the report. “However, they felt that using cannabis suppositories had helped them with relaxation (reduced anticipation of pain) during the sexual act (94.1%, n = 16), which increased their sexual connection with their partners (58.8%, n = 10).”
Nearly half of cannabis-only participants also “voiced the need to have more widely available THC suppositories in healthcare (47.1%, n = 8) rather than having to make them up themselves (35.2%, n = 6),” the report says.
Among the group that had the mindful compassion intervention—which included exercises involving mindfulness, breathing, relaxation techniques and body scans—”72.2% (n = 13) of participants suggested that mindful compassion helped with relaxation and remaining in the moment (83.3%, n = 15), which improved their sexual experiences (77.8%, n = 14),” authors found.
Of those who had both the mindful compassion intervention and the cannabis suppository, half (50 percent) reported that mindful compassion effectively increased the pain-killing effects of the suppository. Meanwhile a third (33.3 percent) “felt more confident and better after the mindful compassion and suppository intervention,” while 27.8 percent said they felt more relaxed.
As for the mechanisms of action behind the two treatments, authors said mindfulness “has been shown to increase levels of sexual self-efficacy, well-being, sexual functioning and QOL” and that there’s an established relationship “between sexual self-efficacy and improved sexual functioning and relationship connection.”
THC, meanwhile, “might act as a vasodilator, allowing more blood flow to the vagina, increasing sexual pleasure,” authors wrote.
“When comparing suppository use with THC, CBD or combined THC/CBD, the combined CBD and THC treatment was favoured among participants in this study,” they continued. “However, this might be owing to the limited availability of THC suppositories in healthcare, such as from the NHS.”
Elsewhere in the study, authors similarly note the comparative lack of high-THC suppositories.
“The limitations of this study are based on ethical and legal cannabis restrictions in the UK,” the wrote. “Ideally, medical cannabis should become more readily available on the NHS, including cannabis suppositories. Current NHS prescriptions include epilepsy, chemotherapy, and multiple sclerosis.”
As authors of the new study pointed out, using suppositories “is not a new way of delivering medication.” And past research involving both anal and vaginal suppositories suggests that the form factor offers unique benefits.
Research published earlier this year, for example, found 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 the symptoms’ 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.
Authors of that study called for the findings to be replicated through randomized clinical trials but 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.”
Those findings came 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.
New research has also 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.
While not all the efforts have been successful—Maryland and Arkansas recently shot down petitions by advocates, for example—others have. New Mexico, Connecticut and Illinois regulators have already voted in favor of the addition of FOD as a qualifying conditions in those states, though the actions still need further approval from state officials.
Supporting the addition is a recently published survey of sexually active women who used cannabis that 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.
Among other research into marijuana and sexual health, a study last year in the Journal of Cannabis Research found that more than 70 percent of surveyed adults said cannabis before sex increased desire and improved orgasms, while 62.5 percent said cannabis enhanced pleasure while masturbating.
Because past findings indicated women who have sex with men are typically less likely to orgasm than their partners, authors of that study said cannabis “can potentially close the orgasm in equality gap.”
A 2020 study in the journal Sexual Medicine, meanwhile, found that women who used cannabis more often had better sex.
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 Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
Cannabis-infused vaginal suppositories seem to reduce sexual pain in women after treatment for gynecological cancer, according to a new study. Online exercises in so-called “mindful compassion,” meanwhile, helped to improve sexual function—including arousal, lubrication and orgasms. Combining the two, however, seemed to offer the patients the most benefit. “The outcomes favoured the [combined] group,” says Read More
