On September 11, 2026, Cannabis Health News reported — with FemTech World following on September 15 — on a UK observational study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology finding that women with endometriosis who were prescribed cannabis-based medicines reported less pain and better sleep, with improvements sustained across a full two years. Researchers followed 101 women through the UK Medical Cannabis Registry, collecting questionnaires at baseline and again at one, three, six, 12, 18 and 24 months.

Why It Matters

Endometriosis affects roughly one in ten women of reproductive age and is a primary driver of dyspareunia — painful sex — which makes it one of the most direct clinical inputs into the sexual wellness market. Patients with the condition are a core customer base for CBD-infused lubricants and arousal products, pelvic wands, and the growing category of intimacy-adjacent pain management. Until now, essentially all of that commerce has rested on self-reported survey data and anecdote. Two-year registry data with sustained outcomes and a measurable opioid-sparing signal is meaningfully better evidence than the category has had, and the opioid reduction in particular is the finding most likely to move clinicians and payers. But the honest read is that this is hypothesis-generating, not proof, and brands selling CBD arousal and pain products should resist the temptation to cite it as validation of anything they sell — a prescribed cannabis-based medicine under registry supervision is not a CBD lubricant, and the FTC has been active on exactly that kind of claims drift. The trial to watch is ENDOCAN: a placebo-controlled result, positive or negative, will do more to define what this category can legally and credibly promise than another decade of survey data.

Improvements appeared across pain severity, the impact of pain on daily activities, sleep, anxiety and overall quality of life, and held at every follow-up point. The study also recorded a drop in prescribed opioid use: average consumption fell from the equivalent of 19.9mg of morphine per day at baseline to 14.8mg at 24 months. Of the 46 participants prescribed opioids at some point during the study, 12 — about 26% — recorded what researchers considered a clinically meaningful reduction by the two-year mark. Most participants received cannabis oil or a combination of oil and dried flower: 33 on oil alone, 60 on flower plus oil, and eight on flower alone.

The safety data is modest but real. Eighteen of the 101 participants reported a combined 165 adverse events, roughly half classed as mild, with fatigue, lethargy and headaches the most common.

The researchers were explicit about what this cannot show. The study was observational with no control group, participants received different products at different doses, and other factors could explain the improvements. No randomized controlled trial has specifically examined cannabis-based medicines for endometriosis-associated pain. That gap is being addressed: the ENDOCAN trial in Scotland — led by Dr Lucy Whitaker with Professors Andrew Horne and Philippa Saunders at the University of Edinburgh — is a double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 study randomizing up to 100 women with endometriosis-associated pain to either Ananda Pharma's MRX1 CBD oral solution or placebo for 12 weeks. Prior evidence has been largely survey-based; a 2024 survey of 912 people with endometriosis across Germany, Austria and Switzerland found 114 cannabis users, of whom 91% reported improved sleep, 90% improved menstrual pain and 80% improved non-cyclical pelvic pain.

Sources

Update — 2026-09-16

Initial entry — story first created.