Recently while teaching “Cannabis 101” to a group of women primarily between 30 and 70 years-old the subject of sexual health came up. It was the topic everyone had the most questions about as approximately half of women suffer sexual dysfunction in some way at some point in their lives. Decreased desire, inability to orgasm, painful sex are very common. I didn’t have time to share my story with the group, but I wanted to share it here.
I am in a healthy relationship with someone I am very sexually attracted to and sex never disappoints. However, we have two kids at home and two dogs that sleep in our bed. Our lives are very busy and we are often exhausted by the time our children have gone to sleep.
Our joke is that we “need to preheat the oven,” now this can mean a variety of different things, but most often, preheating the oven is just turning down our worries and stressors. Sometimes when the house is quiet for the first time in the evening it is the first time I can think. Think about that email, my to-do list for the next day, what we need from the grocery store, and when I am doing this the oven is ice cold. My desire to get something accomplished strongly outweighs my desire for sex.
When I received my medical cannabis card it was for migraines, nothing directly related to sexual dysfunction, I quickly noticed that a small dose of THC and CBD in the evening helped me relax and get my mind off that damn to-do list. It’s like I could instantly feel my shoulders relax for the first time all day. I wanted to experience something enjoyable, not just reply to emails or get caught up on the day’s news. I can’t say that cannabis has drastically improved my sexual health, but it has improved my ability to relax and has increased my desire.
Cannabis has been shown to improve the sexual function of both men and women and I review the research in the article below. Love, touch, and sex are important parts of who we are as humans and are clearly important to the group of women mentioned above. There aren’t a lot of options to help improve sexual function, but cannabis is one that is showing a lot of promise.