Experts at Integro Clinics explore how cannabis medicines can offer an effective alternative to HRT treatment for menopause symptom control.

It is now widely accepted that Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) can be very useful in treating menopause symptoms. However, it is not suitable for all women – some who may not feel comfortable using it or have a medical contraindication such as a family history of cancer.

There is an alternative out there that can be used in conjunction with HRT treatment, to complement it, or used entirely on its own – cannabis medicines.

At Integro Clinics our female pain expert, Dr Sally Ghazaleh and Neuropsychiatrist, Dr Mayur Bodani have seen encouraging results from patients using medical cannabis in the form of an ingestible oil (CBD mixed with THC) and by vaping prescribed cannabis flower.

The specific symptom cannabis-based medicines (CBM’s) can address in menopause include insomnia, anxiety, depression, headaches, low libido, and brain fog. If you have profoundly disturbed sleep, it can have a massive impact on your quality of life, mental well-being & ability to cope.

At Integro Clinics we have witnessed that once the patient achieves a better and more consistent regular quality of sleep, with the help of CBM’s, everything starts to pick up. Anxiety can decrease, the desire to take physical exercise and mental clarity are increased, which can lead to a lift in depression and a more positive mindset.

If you are interested in finding out in more detail how CBM’s can help you with your menopause symptoms, do not miss the opportunity to register for free for a webinar on Tuesday 30 November.  Hosted by Integro Clinics, Cannabis Health and Cannabis Patient Advocacy and Support Services (CPASS), it will look to break down the stigma that women face when it comes to menopause and medical cannabis.

To register for a free ticket for the webinar, please click here

On the panel

Integro Clinics Dr Sally Ghazaleh and Dr Mayur Bodani will join other experts in the field including specialist sexual health nurse Sarah Higgins. There will also be an opportunity to take questions from the audience.

Dr Sally Ghazaleh

Dr Sally Ghazaleh is a pain management consultant and prescriber of cannabis-based medicines at Integro Clinics, where she is the resident female pain expert. Dr Ghazaleh specialises in managing patients with lower back pain, neck pain, neuropathic pain, abdominal pain, cancer pain, complex regional pain syndrome, post-stroke pain and fibromyalgia. She has a particular interest in bladder and abdominal pain in women, and women’s health in general & menopause. She is fluent in Arabic, English and Hungarian.

Dr Mayur Bodani

Dr Mayur Bodani, a neuropsychiatrist at Integro Clinics qualified in both General Medicine (to hospital medicine standard) and neuropsychiatry. He has over 25 years of experience in the field and prescribes cannabis medicines at Integro Clinics for mental health-related conditions.

Gone are the days where women are just supposed to put up and get on with it – there are new medicines out there such as medical cannabis, that can address and help menopause symptoms.

If you would like further information or to speak to Dr Sally Ghazaleh or Dr Mayur Bodani or any of the team at Integro please contact us at:

Website: www.integroclinics.com
Email: Contact@integroclinics.com
Twitter: @clinicsintegro

In the final part of our Men’s Mental Health series, Ian McLauren and Sam Williamson, co-founders of CBDiablo speak about how their own experiences and why they choose to give back to a mental health charity.

Read the first, second and third parts of our men and mental health series here.

Ian McLauren and Sam Williamson, co-founded CBDiablo together in 2019, an online, Edinburgh-based CBD store that has a particular focus on mental health.

Both men have experienced mental health difficulties in their lives, which made them feel passionate about offering help to others. So much so that they donate a portion of their profits to mental health charities.

Ian explained how his experience of bullying while at school, started his struggle with mental health.

“My mental health journey started when I was a teenager. I struggled a lot with bullying and I experienced anxiety. When I got a little bit older, this led to suicidal thoughts and I needed to go to counselling,” he said.

A report from 2018, revealed that bullying can have a massive effect on pupils’ mental health. In a survey of 2,000 students, one fifth said they had experienced bullying while three quarters felt this directly impacted their mental health. A further 33 per cent reported having suicidal thoughts as a result.

“When I got to university, I got sick with a reoccurring chest infection which led to [me experiencing] depression and struggling to function,” Ian continued.

“My life is quite heavily impacted with my mental health and even today it’s a struggle. It’s something you have to deal with every day but I’ve gotten to a place where I’m on top of it.”

It can be difficult to open up about mental health, especially for men. They are less likely to access psychological therapies than women, according to The Mental Health Foundation. Only 36 per cent of referrals to the NHS talking therapies are men. As a result, men may resort to other more dangerous ways of coping with mental health strain, such as drinking, drugs or violence.

Mental health and staying CALM

The charity, Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) estimates that 125 people die by suicide every week in the UK, with 75 per cent of those deaths being men.

Ian said: “I spoke to my mum and she pushed me in the direction of help. I was very nervous and unsure what to do. When I was at university, it got to a point where I didn’t want to lay around in bed anymore, so I knew I needed to go and get a job and complete my studies. I went to the doctors and got help that way. I don’t remember it being difficult, but it wasn’t my choice either, I was either forced by situation, or by a parent.”

Ian and Sam met in their first year of university. After they completed their studies, they moved into marketing and SEO, but it wasn’t until they worked with a CBD company that they came across its benefits for mental health. They decided to go into business together but were determined to have a charitable focus.

Sam said: “We tried CBD when we started working with the client and we felt a benefit from it fairly early on, especially for things like sleep. Sleep is obviously a big part of your mental health.”

A lack of sleep creates a vicious circle when it comes to health. Poor sleep can impact mental health leaving a person feeling sluggish, stressed or increasingly anxious. Increased stress or anxiety can then affect the quality of sleep contributing to poor mental health.

Ian added: “We really enjoyed CBD, so we thought we would do something by ourselves. But [we wanted to] do something that means something. The obvious choice was mental health because of my own experiences. We made a beeline for CALM as well because it represents who we are.

“I’ve got two brothers and Sam has three brothers. We both have dads or uncles and it’s not always easy to open up, especially for men. That’s why we chose a mental health charity and one with a predominately male focus.”

Mental Health charities

CALM is a charity that takes a stand against suicide in the UK, by raising awareness of the stereotypes, offering help and running life-saving services.

It offers a free and confidential web chat for anyone in need of help and also hosts support services for anyone who has lost someone due to suicide. While the charity is not solely focused on men, it has launched campaigns such as  #BestManProject which aims to challenge male stereotypes, encourage positive behavioural changes and address help-seeking behaviour using art, music or sport.

Both Ian and Sam decided to donate 20 per cent of their profits to CALM. They are incredibly transparent about the donation process often posting their donations to the charity on Instagram. In September, they posted that they donated £665. CALM highlighted that just £8 can answer one life-saving call and that they managed to answer over 83 of these over the month of August.

The brand also highlights mental health and wellness across their social media, choosing to focus on Movember for men’s health. Movember is the mental health campaign that sees men grow their facial hair to raise awareness.

The response has been positive. Sam explained it is one of the reasons that people stay with the brand, while they often email to say it has been the start of their own mental health journey.

“It’s a bit part of the reason why people continue to buy from us,” Sam said.

Ian added: “We get a lot of people emailing to say it’s changed their life, which is great, or that it has been a building block towards feeling better. It might have been part of their journey towards therapy or improving their lifestyle. CBD does seem to be quite a fundamental part of it for some people.”

Introducing change

When it comes to changing the way men speak about their mental health, Ian highlighted that it can be a generational thing.

“I think a lot of the time, older generations of men don’t want to seem weak or vulnerable and that’s transcended down to younger generations,” he said.

“Even though things are a little better, there is partly a pride or bravado. If you are struggling with mental health or feeling bad then you’re not really meant to bring it up, so it’s awkward to talk to somebody.”

He continued: “A lot of guys don’t feel equipped to deal with that conversation either. If a friend comes to you who is struggling, then I don’t think a lot of men know how to deal with that. Girls seem to deal with it really well, it seems to be discourse between friends but for men, not so much.”

In speaking with other charities that deal with male mental health or creating communities where men can go to feel less isolated, they have also learned that sometimes it can be down to body language.

Ian added: “Apparently men like to sit next to each other, side by side, but women prefer to be face to face, which is how they like to open up. There are those key differences but it’s not clear if it’s biology that causes that. These are differences that might stop health services from being equipped to deal with different people because there are slight differences in the way people open up.”

Natalie talks to Cannabis Health about living with fibromyalgia and how cannabis has helped her with pain relief.

Fibromyalgia can be a debilitating condition leaving patients with chronic pain, fatigue and increased sensitivity. Other side effects can include poor sleep, cognitive issues and headaches. It is thought to affect around 1.5-2 million people in the UK.

Natalie was diagnosed with fibromyalgia when she was in her first year of teaching. She had been experiencing some of the symptoms since she was in her early teens but doctors told her it was growing pains.

“Since I was about 12, I had a lot of pain that came and went with a lot of fatigue,” she explains.

“The doctor’s put it down to growing pains. When I was I was in my first year of teaching, one day I woke up and couldn’t do anything. I was incredibly tired and in so much pain.

“I felt that way for months and I was really struggling. I got my formal diagnosis from a rheumatologist. I had a lot of blood and strength tests to make sure I didn’t have arthritis or lupus because of the similar symptoms.”

Life with fibromyalgia

Once Natalie had her diagnosis, her life began to change. She quit her teaching job as it became too much to cope with when her symptoms were bad. She took on jobs where she could choose her own hours or work part-time.

“I ended up working as a children’s entertainer because it was good money,” she says.

“I could do it over a few days a week and make an acceptable amount of money to cover my bills. I did retail work alongside it.”

When it came to socialising, to stop herself from feeling isolated, Natalie turned to online communities to meet people and make friends.

“I’m not amazing at socialising, so I’ve always found it a struggle. I didn’t stay in touch with a lot of people from university or school because I also have mental health problems that held me back. This isolated me a lot so I did turn to online communities where I met a few people who I’m still friends with now,” says Natalie.

It wasn’t until she joined online fibromyalgia communities that someone suggested that cannabis may have benefits.

“I never really knew about its benefits, although I knew it would relax you,” she admits.

“People in my fibromyalgia groups said they used medical cannabis and found it helpful. It’s only really been the last few years where I’ve used it properly as a medicine.”

Fibromyalgia pain

Cannabis may help with the pain experienced by fibromyalgia patients. A recent study on patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia and other inflammatory rheumatic diseases reported a reduction in pain levels following medical cannabis use. The study surveyed 319 patients about their use of medical cannabis products. Those with fibromyalgia reported a mean pain level reduction of 77 per cent while 78 per cent also reported sleep quality improvement.

Although Natalie has family members who use medical cannabis in legal states in the US, she hadn’t considered using it herself. Despite being open to the idea of a prescription, she says there was very little mentioned to her about pursuing it by her doctors.

“It’s weird because it’s almost like a whisper network. I would never have known about the private medical thing because it’s not really mentioned and the health sector doesn’t talk about it. They don’t actively tell you about prescriptions,” she says.

Natalie has found that cannabis helps her most with the pain.

“A lot of the time, I get shoulder or lower back pain. If other people knew my pain level, they would have a different idea of what pain is, but I guess I’m used to it,” she says.

““Due to the way I work, I don’t use it until the evening. At the end of the day, I’ll use cannabis and I find my pain is completely gone. Sometimes, if I’m struggling then I’ll have a nice bath, have my cannabis and that’s the perfect combination.”

Cannabis Stigma

Natalie is guarded about her cannabis use because of the stigma but also due to her job. She is open with some of her friends but not her family. She chose to use only her first name to avoid being identified.

“My parents are from a different generation and they are quite conservative too. It’s very different for them so they don’t understand how it would help. My clients obviously don’t know, as some wouldn’t like it. [But] I have clients in the Netherlands who don’t drink but will go for a joint but it’s different for me,” she says.

“People still struggle to admit to taking medication because of the attitude. I’ve tried Tramadol, Xanax and all sorts of things that have more impact on how you feel, physically and mentally compared to cannabis. But that’s  acceptable because it’s prescribed by a big pharmaceutical company.”

Natalie feels that there is a lot to be changed in terms of education, so that people know the benefit of cannabis when it comes to conditions like fibromyalgia. She also highlighted that there should be more awareness of the options out there when it comes to accessing a prescription.

“More people should be aware of the benefits of what it can do, rather than it being a niche internet topic or having a weird stigma around it,” she adds.

“Medical professionals need to be more aware of how it can help and the different avenues that people can go down to get prescriptions.”