“it’d been seven years without relief and then overnight, all of a sudden, we saw the potential of this medicine,” brown tells the growthop from winnipeg.
brown followed up with her doctor, who put her in touch with a local cannabis clinic. her experience at the clinic was great, she says — there was no stigma or judgement. but there was a general lack of information.
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endometriosis is defined by the vancouver-based world endometriosis society (wes) as a disorder in which “tissue similar to the lining inside the uterus is found outside the uterus, where it induces a chronic inflammatory reaction.”
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there is no known cure for endometriosis, though surgery can be conducted to remove scar tissue and endometrial tissue but it is not always effective in providing a long-term solution. according to the american college of obstetricians and gynecologists , endometriosis symptoms can return in up to 80 per cent of people within two years of surgery.
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formerly a pain management clinician at mcgill university, dr. ware says another obstacle patients face is the fact that endometriosis can be difficult to diagnose.
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“ one of the worst aspects of living with endo .”
“ it’s not just a few weeks or months where people are living in the unknown; people live for years, sometimes decades, without support or knowing the cause of their life-altering symptoms, ” enc writes in a blog.
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earlier this month, researchers at queen’s university were awarded a grant of nearly a million dollars to investigate the role of “endocannabinoids in endometriosis pathophysiology and determine efficacy of cannabinoids as a novel therapeutic modality.”
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for brown, she says she’s not only an eternal optimist but relentless. she believes that better days are ahead when it comes to accessing information about medical cannabis and treating endometriosis.
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