Many women experience their periods differently. For many ladies, this time of the month comes with an unpleasant host of symptoms like breast tenderness, bloating, breakouts, mood swings, weird cravings, and perhaps the most common of all, pain.
A study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information website found that of the 408 young women studied, 84.1 percent reported experiencing menstrual pain. Pain before or during a woman’s period can range from mild discomfort to excruciating cramps that may require a day off from work or medication.
If you regularly suffer from premenstrual pain, then you may want to consider using cannabis for pain relief. Take note, though, that, in states where marijuana is legal, employers may still have their own strict policies and even require passing a workplace drug testing. This is applicable especially in safety-critical occupations like operating heavy machinery or working in health-care settings.
Meanwhile, here’s what you need to know about marijuana as a treatment for premenstrual pain.
Cannabis Has Been Used Medically Since Ancient Times
The exact origins of cannabis are hard to trace because the plant has been cultivated and used even before people started writing. Some of the earliest records show that cannabis has been used in ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greece, and China to treat many different health conditions, including headaches, insomnia, gastrointestinal disorders, and chronic pain.
- B. O’Shaughnessy first introduced the therapeutic use of cannabis in Western medicine in the 1840s. The surgeon had been working in India for the British East Indies Company. At Calcutta, he became a member of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta and published his first papers, which covered the various medical uses of cannabis. He validated various local applications of the plant and made further recommendations for using it for additional therapeutic treatments.
O’Shaughnessy became well-known for successfully treating various ailments using cannabis, including pain caused by rheumatism and convulsions suffered by an infant. He eventually popularized the use of the drug in England.
THC Is a Muscle Relaxant
Abdominal cramps are one of the most common premenstrual symptoms, and these painful cramps are caused by muscle contractions in the uterus triggered by hormones. The nature of these cramps may be compared to small labor contractions.
Cannabis can offer pain relief for abdominal cramps because tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), one of the active cannabinoids found in marijuana, is a muscle relaxant. You can experience the effects of THC in a variety of ways, such as applying it topically on the affected area using a cannabis-infused cream or by vaping it with a vape pen. You can also use a beaker bong or a glass pipe.
It Is a Natural Treatment for Body Pains
Premenstrual pain comes in many ugly forms. Some women suffer weird back pains; others, the usual abdominal cramps. Regardless of what symptom you experience, it is uncomfortable, and you want to get rid of it so it doesn’t interfere with your life.
Fortunately, cannabis is well-known for offering relief to various pain symptoms, from simple muscle spasms to cancer-related pain. When cannabis is inhaled, blood levels of cannabinoids increase at a rate faster than when it is orally ingested, and the analgesic effects can be achieved in seven minutes. How’s that for a natural and fast-acting solution?
It Offers Relief from Migraines
Headaches are another common premenstrual symptom that cannabis can treat. A study conducted in 2016 found that 121 adult participants experienced a significant improvement in their migraines after they treated it with marijuana. Although the migraines were not specifically related to a menstrual migraine, it is still interesting to note that cannabis was able to reduce the participants’ monthly migraines from 10.4 to only 4.6.