Bridging the Gap: Endometriosis and the Search for Better Symptom Management

 

For many women, cannabis-based medicines are a last resort, often having exhausted all other options, or having spent years being referred between different services and feeling dismissed and disbelieved. 

 

Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory condition where cells similar to those in the lining of the uterus are found elsewhere in the body. Even though it can cause debilitating pain and countless other symptoms, many women report living with these for years before finally receiving a diagnosis. 

 

The condition, which affects 1.5 million women in the UK, now takes an average of nine years to diagnose.

 

By the time they arrive in our clinic, they’ve often seen multiple healthcare professionals, tried different treatments, including surgery, and begun to question whether the pain they’re experiencing is something they simply have to live with.

 

Why is this the case?

 

Our healthcare symptoms have historically underestimated women’s pain. It is too often dismissed as ‘anxiety’ or ‘hysteria’ or normalised because of its association with menstruation. 

 

Women are taught from a young age that painful periods are simply part of life, or that hormonal changes are to blame for symptoms that deserve further investigation, resulting in other chronic health conditions like arthritis being taken more seriously in men.

 

Chronic pelvic pain is often non-specific and so easily blamed on ‘normal’ cyclical issues. But endometriosis is more than just a “bad period”.

 

The pain can be debilitating, leaving people unable to get out of bed for days and preventing them from working and leading a normal life. I’ve had women describe how they have collapsed with the pain. One woman told me it had happened to her at a music concert. 

 

The process of getting an endometriosis diagnosis is complex. It is typically only officially diagnosed by surgery once the patient has undergone ultrasound scans, but new solutions are gradually being developed to improve this.

 

Once a diagnosis has been made, treatments remain limited to symptom management such as hormonal interventions, pain relief, and sometimes surgery, which all come with their own complications and side effects.

 

This is what leads many women to seek out another option. 

 

Medical cannabis is not a cure for endometriosis or a replacement for conventional healthcare, and it’s not for everyone (some women do experience mild adverse effects). But many say it helps with pain, fatigue, and the psychological impact of living with endometriosis. 

 

Truly integrated care starts by listening to these women, as well as encompassing timely diagnosis and access to all treatment options, including medical cannabis where appropriate.

 

But sadly, we can’t overlook the fact that women come to us because they don’t feel heard in the NHS. 

 

At Releaf, we’re proud to provide a clinical service where women feel seen and validated in their conditions, but this shouldn’t be the exception to the rule. 

 

Women should feel listened to by all their healthcare providers and confident that their needs will be addressed with action, not just platitudes. 

 

I’ll leave you with a thought I often have when I see the women in our clinic. How different things might be if men also experienced severe bleeding and debilitating pain every month. 

 

I suspect the change we desperately need might happen more quickly.