Tay Feitosa discusses the use of cannabis in the treatment of endometriosis

Since her first period, Taciany Nataly Matos Feitosa, known as Tai, suffered from intense abdominal pain. Without a definitive diagnosis, she spent 20 years dealing with symptoms that made her unable to perform any other type of activity during her menstrual period.

"It was a difficult and complicated life because I had a lot of cramps before, during, and two days after my period. They were debilitating pains! I was admitted to the emergency room weekly taking opioids like tramadol and morphine. I was anxious, couldn't sleep because I was already thinking that because of my period, I would miss classes and work, and everyone thought I was just being fussy," recalls Tai.

At 32 years old, the diagnosis to explain the pain was finally confirmed: endometriosis. A disease that alters the normal functioning of women's reproductive region. The tissue cells lining the endometrium in the uterus are not expelled during menstruation and move in the opposite direction, returning to the ovaries or abdominal cavity and multiplying again, causing heavy bleeding and consequently intense pain.

With the diagnosis in hand, Tai, who is a nurse, began to explore treatment possibilities and in this search found reports about the effects of cannabis for chronic pain relief.

"Since I was 12 years old, when I had my first period, I have been using contraceptives to control bleeding and very strong opioid medications for pain, and still, nothing worked. When you are in a situation like this, you accept to try the alternatives that appear. I started researching cannabis, imported the oil, and from the first contact, the pain did not appear during the week of menstruation, it seemed like a miracle and since then, I became an activist because if it helped me, it can help many people," says Tai.

The effects of cannabis on women's health

The results with cannabis were so efficient and surprising that Tai began to thoroughly research the medicinal effects of the plant. In this journey, she found the Salvar association and started medical follow-up with a gynecologist specialized in cannabinoids who began to prescribe the oil correctly.

The woman's reproductive region has many receptors that connect to the phytocannabinoids of cannabis, including CBD and THC, and therefore responds effectively to the therapeutic effects of the plant.

Among the medicinal benefits are anti-inflammatory and analgesic actions, so the plant has been extensively researched as a treatment for endometriosis, as it regulates the body improving chronic pain, the main symptom of the disease.

"In addition to alleviating the pain, which allows me to have a normal life, cannabis also helped me control anxiety, something I developed because I was already suffering in advance thinking about what I would face during my period. I solved two problems with one plant, a natural treatment with no side effects. As a nurse, I cannot prescribe, but I can talk about its potency and recommend the treatment. In my family, there are more people who started treating themselves with cannabis because everyone saw the before and after the plant entered my life," she emphasizes.