Releaf at PAUSE Live for menopause awareness month

PAUSE Live: The UK’s largest menopause and women’s health event

PAUSE Live is back on the 4th October for its third year in a row at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London. Once again, the event will welcome an inspiring line-up of speakers, an impressive selection of exhibitors, and insights from women’s health experts. 

What’s more, for the first time, this year’s event will expand beyond menopause to cover all aspects of women’s health - from menstruation to menopause. 

PAUSE Live was launched in 2023 to fill a gap in the market - Providing women with the resources and tools they need to more effectively manage the symptoms of menopause. The event was founded by Charlotte Body, who was inspired to improve education and awareness around menopause and women’s health, after struggling to access information and support during her own menopause journey. 

Women’s health in the UK

In recent decades, our understanding of women’s health conditions and symptoms has developed significantly; however, public education, access to treatments, and even advice from professionals often leaves a lot to be desired. As a result, the gender health gap persists, with women often left feeling alone and helpless. 

Various studies have found that women in the UK experience poorer health outcomes than men and spend more of their lives living with illness and disability, with gender-specific conditions like menopause and endometriosis often exacerbating these issues. In 2021, a government-launched review on women’s healthcare experiences revealed that 84% of women reported not being listened to by healthcare professionals. 

Statistics also show that women are more likely to be misdiagnosed than men, highlighting a persistent lack of understanding around women’s health problems. But, PAUSE Live - and Releaf - are on a mission to change this. 

The Releaf stand at PAUSE Live

Releaf is proud to be attending this year’s event for the second year in a row to provide accurate and reliable information about medical cannabis and its potential in the management of women’s health conditions.

Our stand will be based in the Education Room where we’ll be sharing information about the legality of medical cannabis in the UK, how it can be accessed, and the symptoms and conditions it can be prescribed for. 

So, let’s take a quick look at how medical cannabis could help with women’s health concerns, including menopause symptoms:

Medical cannabis - An alternative for women’s health

Before medical cannabis was outlawed in the UK, cannabis-based medicines were widely used for a variety of ailments. In fact, Queen Victoria herself is believed to have been prescribed a cannabis preparation to help manage menstrual pain! And yet, many people are unaware of the potential of medical cannabis for woman-specific health issues, such as menopause symptoms and endometriosis. 

Since the rescheduling of cannabis-based medicines back in November 2018, specialist doctors have been able to prescribe medical cannabis for the treatment of a wide range of conditions. Since then, a growing number of women and people with uteruses have embraced the power of cannabis to address their symptoms. 

Medical cannabis for menopause

Menopause is a natural and inevitable part of a woman’s life. It can be associated with a wide range of symptoms, such as hot flashes, anxiety and depression, joint pain, sleep problems, and brain fog. 

Despite eventually affecting around half of the population, there remains a significant knowledge gap around the effects and treatments for menopause and peri-menopause symptoms. But findings show that medical cannabis use is on the rise among peri-menopausal and menopausal women. According to a 2022 study, over three-quarters of menopausal and perimenopausal women who participated endorsed its use for menopause-related symptoms. 

While more clinical research is still needed, current evidence suggests that cannabis and its derivatives may be helpful when managing the effects of menopause. Medical cannabis is widely used for sleep disturbance - one of the most reported menopause symptoms.

Releaf patient, Jodie, uses medical cannabis to manage her menopause symptoms:

“I just love the medical cannabis oil. I know when I take the oil at night, I'm going to have the nicest sleep. For a number of years, I managed only two, three, or four hours of sleep if I was lucky, and that impacted my work, my self-confidence, and many different areas in my life.”

Medical cannabis and women’s health

Medical cannabis can also be considered as an alternative treatment option for a number of other women’s health conditions and symptoms. For example, endometriosis is estimated to affect around 10% of people with a womb, but in the face of long waits for diagnosis and a lack of understanding and effective treatments, more people are turning to medical cannabis to better manage their symptoms. 

Several studies have reported positive outcomes when using cannabis-based medicines to treat endometriosis-related symptoms, such as pelvic pain, gastrointestinal distress, cramps, nausea, and depression. Cannabis-based medicines can now be prescribed to patients struggling with these symptoms when other therapies have proven ineffective. 

Releaf patient, Carla, was prescribed medical cannabis after years of debilitating symptoms related to endometriosis:

“I was prescribed Tramadol before starting with medical cannabis, and even though it kills the pain, I was constantly waking up. I would wake up every two to three hours, and most mornings I was totally exhausted. But with medical cannabis, I can have some before going to bed, and it does help me fall asleep faster and stay asleep throughout the night.”

This year’s PAUSE Live event provides the perfect setting to “spark conversations, elevate women’s voices, and embrace this transformative phase together”, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of it! 

In the run-up to this year’s PAUSE Live event,, our women’s health expert, Dr Maria Knobel, spoke to Lisa Nash about the potential of cannabis in managing menopause symptoms: 

“Menopause is complex, and it can touch every aspect of our lives, like sleep, mood, energy, relationships, and cannabis-based medicines offer a different toolkit to what we traditionally use in medicine because it also reaches into the many different aspects of our well-being. 

“So for women, it can help restore sleep when nothing else has worked; for others it helps ease the anxiety or stabilise mood swings, or for others again, it’s managing joint pain. But, I have to say, cannabis is not a silver bullet, but it can definitely be a lifeline, especially in women who feel their symptoms have been dismissed, or they’ve exhausted other conventional options.”

You can purchase tickets for the event on the PAUSE Live website, and stay up to date on all the event news on PAUSE Live’s Instagram.

We hope to see you there!