March 12, 2025 • 21 mins
Ever felt like your body just won’t respond, no matter how much you try? You’re not broken—but the way we’ve been taught to think about female pleasure is.
In this episode, we explore why orgasms can feel impossible for some women and how cannabis is now being recognized as a legitimate medical treatment for female orgasm difficulty (FOD). Some U.S. states, including Illinois and Connecticut, have even added FOD to their list of qualifying conditions for medical cannabis!
If you’ve ever felt frustrated, pressured, or ashamed about your orgasms (or lack thereof), this episode will change everything you thought you knew about your body and pleasure.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It was thirty years of having difficultyorgasming.
After seeing fourth best sex therapist overthirty years, found out about cannabis, and I
wanted to try it.
Oh my gosh.
It was shocking.
It changed my life.
People will tell me, like, she goes, oh yeah,like as soon as I take that gummy, like I can
(00:23):
feel arousal.
That has been in the research since theseventies.
This is not new new information.
What's new is actually turning it into policy,making it law.
There's research that shows that the THC incannabis reduces the activity in the amygdala,
(00:43):
the part of the brain that stores trauma.
Women, for example, who have had trauma, sexualtrauma, childhood sexual abuse, which by the
way, the number one sexual complaint of womenwho have had childhood sexual abuse is orgasm
difficulty.
So so tell
us about, like, the research itself.
387 validated surveys of women who were usingcannabis.
(01:05):
They were using it, before sex or not.
They but they were using it.
Fifty three percent or two hundred and two ofthem had reported that they had orgasm
difficulty before partnered sex.
One of the most interesting things in thestudy, the frequency of use is
(01:30):
Hey, everybody.
Doctor Diane here.
Welcome back to the lounge.
I'm so thrilled about the conversation we'regonna have today.
I have the best guest, a new friend of mine.
We're gonna talk about the research she's beendoing, and these studies are blowing my mind,
which she sent over to me to take a look ataround orgasm and female orgasm difficulty,
(01:52):
which is a real legitimate problem.
Right?
I've seen and I'll be interested as I bring onthis next guest to ask her about what she's
seeing with the stats because I've personallyseen anything as as aggressive as only fifteen
percent of women can orgasm by, you know, bypenetration alone.
And then we have other stats around twentypercent or so of women that have never orgasm.
(02:15):
And I've seen stats all over the board, so I'mgonna ask our next guest about what she's seen.
But the point here is this is a real big, bigissue, and it's a common thing that nobody is
talking about.
And people are suffering and thinking there'ssomething wrong with them where it's nothing
wrong.
We just don't have all the tools together.
And the research that this guest is going toshare with us around cannabis and around the
(02:39):
use of cannabis for solving this problem andreally helping women have better orgasms or
their first orgasm finally after, you know, alifetime of struggle here, it's just absolutely
phenomenal.
So doctor Suzanne, thank you so much for comingwith me coming here today with me.
We're gonna have a great time today.
Thank you, doctor Diane.
(03:00):
I'm thank you for inviting me on.
It's it's really a pleasure.
And I would love because we're gonna go intothe research and, you know, give people
supportive ideas and tools and really hopinghelp open up people's minds around this, but
it's such a unique place.
Right?
It's such a unique way of solving this problem,meaning, you know, so much talk in the world is
(03:20):
around testosterone and HRT and all thesethings.
So I'm really curious, like, what initially,like, inspired you really to go down very, very
strongly in this world of research andexploration around cannabis and fee female
orgasm disorder?
Well, it was thirty years of having difficultyorgasming and, dealing with the shame of that
(03:43):
and the feelings of inadequacy, the feelings ofisolation, the the having no place to really at
that time, I mean, in the eighties, there waswe didn't have the Internet.
You know?
We didn't have Reddit where there's a threadwith becoming orgasmic with 30,000, you know,
people talking about their orgasm.
(04:03):
So, after seeing fourth sex sex therapists overthirty years, I stumbled on or somewhere I
found out about cannabis, and I wanted to tryit.
And, it wasn't even a part of a plan.
Like, okay.
Let's try it and see if I can, you know,orgasm.
It just kind of I had had a I had to learn howto use it, first of all, but we can get into
(04:28):
all that.
Like, I'm Yes.
Pretty much.
I'm not want to to surrender, you know, or gointo, like, a different state of consciousness.
But, anyway, I ended up, you know, orgasming,with a partner to my own surprise.
And, I was like, could that have been that?
The cannabis?
It was it was, like, two and a half hoursprevious.
(04:50):
So we ended up trying and, you know, over time,I could orgasm with or without the cannabis in
different ways, and, it changed my life.
I mean, I sold my company in 2020.
I went back for my PhD.
I in 2020, I graduated, last year, did adissertation.
(05:12):
And, anyway, I'll stop there, but that it itdefinitely, it was life changing, and I know I
wanted to see if other women had were sufferingfrom this orgasm difficulty and also finding
cannabis beneficial.
It's so important.
And what I love about your story is is what yousaid around, hey.
Even using this and actually starting down theroad of bringing cannabis in, it sounds like
(05:36):
you actually found then that sometimes youcould after the the induction of Canada
cannabis into your play, then afterwards,you're saying that you could sometimes use
cannabis or not use cannabis.
And either way, you would have an orgasm.
So it just kinda opened that world up.
And that and that that has been in the researchsince the seventies.
(05:58):
This is this is not new information.
What's new is actually turning it into policy,you know, making it law that, for example, the
states of Colorado and the states of Illinoishave added or female orgasm difficulty as a
condition of treatment for medical cannabis.
So we've taken the research and actually put itinto society, into policy.
(06:23):
Yeah.
So it it and and why does it you know, why cana woman what they said even in the seventies.
You know?
It was a book called The Sexual Power ofMarijuana by Barbara Lewis who talked about
women who once they learned how to orgasm withcannabis, they didn't always need it.
Yeah.
So I love it.
And we have neuroplasticity theory.
(06:45):
Yeah.
You know, to we have now we know that the humanbrain, the the adult brain continues to grow
and change.
We didn't used to think that years ago, but Iknow that to be true.
So it's this new learned behavior.
And women in my study, when I, you know, Iinterviewed them, they they say said similar
things, but we can go into that more detail andmore in in a little bit as well.
(07:09):
Yeah.
I definitely want to.
And and I'm as you are talking about, you know,kind of the high level of the mechanism of
what's happening, I know, like, some of whatyou found in research is this almost resetting
of the amygdala.
Right?
And you mentioned in your own, you know, inyour own story that you felt shame around this
not being able to orgasm, which I think is areally common experience.
(07:32):
Like, that was my experience before I figuredout how to orgasm around, like, what's wrong
with me, you know, my broken, you know, thatthing of wanting to show up as a woman and feel
into your sexual body, but also knowing that ithelps partners feel like they're they're able
to provide pleasure, and partners wanna dothat.
And so then there's the shame of lettingsomebody down and all of that messiness.
(07:56):
Yeah.
It's a big package.
It's a big package.
It really is.
It's a complicated thing for sure.
So so what have you then found?
Like like, it's helping the amygdala, like,process trauma better, or it's just kinda
settling down those neurological waves?
Or what do you think is happening there from,like, the that brain standpoint on them?
Great question, Diane.
Doctor Diane.
(08:16):
That's a great question.
So there is, there's research that shows thatthe THC in cannabis reduces the activity in the
amygdala, the part of the brain that storestrauma.
And, that research has led to what I call theamygdala reduction theory that was published
(08:39):
that basically says that women, for example,who have had trauma, sexual trauma, childhood
sexual abuse, which, by the way, the number onesexual complaint of women who have had
childhood sexual abuse is orgasm difficulty.
So, you know, if we can quiet that part of themind that is hypervigilant, and it's trying to
(09:00):
help us.
I mean, it's definitely trying to help us tosay, we're not gonna let that ever happen to
you again.
The the challenge with that in learning how tosurrender into orgasm is that as one woman who
I interviewed shared, she says, you know, herbrain would tell her, you know, you're getting
ready to orgasm.
I'm noticing that you're going to be orgasmingsoon.
(09:21):
And she would be telling her brain, thank you,but I I I'm really would prefer you know, thank
you for that information.
And if we could put that aside for now, becausethat's like spectatoring.
You know, that's not being in the body.
That's stepping out and saying, okay.
Warning.
That's not gonna help.
And she.
So long story short is the the the cannabis,the THC reduces the activity, and that science
(09:46):
has shown that in the part of the brain thatstores the trauma, which can allow women to to
relax the hypervigilance and be in their body.
Yeah.
And what a great thing for the rest of our dayto day life, right, to relax that
hypervigilance and all that.
It's such a gift in so many ways.
(10:06):
It's really, Go ahead.
I mean, who you know, it's like I could sigh,you know, just like for the women, for example,
in my study, we found who had women with orwithout orgasm difficulty who had a sexual
abuse history, had a more positivestatistically significant, more positive orgasm
response using cannabis before sex.
(10:28):
So it's it's been it's scientifically and thisis there's consistency in the research over
fifty years, including anecdotal research.
So it's exciting to finally, like, be talkingabout this and
Yeah.
It really is.
Ready for it.
And like you said, this this stuff is like it'snot new from a standpoint of there's, you know,
(10:49):
there's information that is decades old, butbeing able to have more research and and newer
research and being able to get it into policy,it just brings this awareness.
And I think for for me as, like, a fundamentalscientist, which is what I feel like I am as a
doctor, Like, what I've seen in in working withpatients is if I can show them the study and
the research, then the belief and the abilityto to say take that step to try it is so much
(11:15):
easier.
And so that's a huge part of, I think, what theoffering is here too.
I'm curious about then so so tell us about,like, the research itself.
Like, what I'm curious about is, you know, whois all coming into your study?
Because it sounds like some people with trauma.
Like, are you working with people that havenever had orgasms, that have had orgasms just
(11:35):
sometimes or they're not very strong or theycan only have orgasm through masturbation and
not a partner?
Like, what have you seen kind of in all thesedifferent areas?
Have you worked with these different types ofWell,
I'll focus on the the research I did for mydissertation that got published in sexual
medicine online last year.
It's called the assessment.
I can send you a link.
I have a assessment of the use of cannabis,before partnered sex on women with and without
(11:59):
orgasm difficulty.
So over a thousand women, replied to thesurvey, and, we ended up using 387 validated
surveys of women who were using cannabis.
They were using it, before sex or not.
They they were using it.
And fifty three percent or two hundred and twoof them had orgas had reported that they had
(12:24):
orgasm difficulty before partnered sex.
So one of the most interesting things in thestudy were there were there were a number of
things, but, you know, realizing that therewere some women who thought they had an orgasm
problem.
But when we looked objectivity objectively attheir responses, we've found out that they
(12:49):
really didn't.
We they got moved to the category where theydidn't.
Because if they were able to orgasm sometimesor most times without cannabis, they aligned
with the women who didn't have an orgasmproblem.
The women who had an orgasm problem, almost allthe largest group of them almost never orgasmed
(13:09):
without cannabis.
And to my surprise, that same group of womenalmost always orgasmed with it.
So it was it was shocking in to see it.
Like, when I had organized the data andrealized, like, oh my gosh.
Like, this is really, really helping women.
(13:31):
And they learned it on their own.
Like, there there hasn't really been, atraining.
Like so, anyway, that's, those were it improvedorgasm frequency, orgasm ease, and orgasm
satisfaction for women with and without orgasmdifficulty.
Like, by seventy seven percent of the women fororgasm frequency for women with orgasm
(13:53):
difficulty.
I think it was seven over seventy percent forimproving orgasm satisfaction and sixty seven
so over like, somewhere in there.
I'm getting my numbers mixed up.
But Yeah.
It's phenomenal results.
It's it's the majority.
You know?
We're able to, yeah, improve orgasm frequency,ease, and satisfaction.
Which is phenomenal.
I mean, that just is, like, life changing to somany people.
(14:16):
Did you, by any chance
I'm curious.
Like, did you, by any chance, do anything,like, compare that with, like, masturbation
versus partnered sex?
Was that, like, a criteria in there that youlooked at all?
So we only evaluated we we specifically lookedat the line of just before partnered sex,
because if it was overlapped with masturbation,we'd put number first of all, it was just the
(14:39):
number of questions.
You know, how many questions were women willingto answer?
And, we look specifically at the orgasmsubscale questions, frequency ease and
satisfaction with and without cannabis beforepartnered sex.
Okay.
That was the Because that's the largest groupof women.
It's called situational.
They call it by the diagnostic is just, youknow, the the DSM five.
(15:03):
It's called situational FOD, situational femaleorgasm difficulty.
Yeah.
Which means they can have it in I call itpartnered sex difficulty.
You know?
But it's a difficult situation.
More accurate
in, like, the reality of what it actually is.
And you know what I learned too is is thatwomen who don't have an orgasm problem, they
don't orgasm in all ways.
(15:23):
Yeah.
It's not like, you know, I and that because Ithink we're we're misled into thinking that,
oh, well, she has to orgasm through partner youknow, through oral sex, through vaginal
intercourse, through clitoral stimulation.
You know, like, across the board, she has toorgasm all these different ways in order to
count as not having an orgasm.
(15:45):
No.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's really silly.
It's really silly, especially when we look atstudies that are showing that women and their
neurological systems are, you know, are wireddifferently.
And some woman I women I've seen in studieswhere it's like even the g spot, which we're
now calling more the g zone, is almost, like,hardened where there's not as much nervous
(16:05):
tissue that goes there.
So there's, like, idea of, like, oh, you know,every woman needs to have this g spot orgasm.
Well, if their body is anatomically not wiredthat way, that might be part of part of the
issue there.
You know?
And, I mean, I interviewed a woman, and,actually, she's gone public.
She with her with her story, she is the, hername is Rebecca Anderson, and she is the the
(16:28):
petitioner for the state of Oregon for addingfemale orgasm difficulty as a condition of
treatment with medical cannabis in that state.
Oh, great.
And she talked about having had a radicalhysterectomy following cervical cancer, whereas
her cervix was removed and the upper part ofher vagina and other additional reproductive
(16:48):
organs.
But that you know, from from an orgasmperspective, she lost that's how she orgasmed.
And so she then had what they called acquiredFOD, which means that she used to be able to
orgasm, but she can't any longer.
Like, she lost.
So we always think of women using having orgasmwith clitoral stimulation.
Yeah.
That's not always the case for every woman.
(17:11):
Exactly right.
But the but the point was that she starteddabbling in cannabis using making cannabis
suppositories, and trying different ways to usecannabis and found new ways to orgasm through
the use of cannabis.
And, so anyway, I found that to be, not just afascinating story, but a a study had just come
(17:33):
out last month out of The UK on women withgynecological cancers who were using cannabis
suppositories, just coincidentally.
I mean, here was the research.
And if they used it with mindfulness, there wasa more positive orgasm response.
That makes sense to us today.
Right?
You know, using it with mindfulness.
Exactly.
Because using it by itself, they said it didn'treally work, but using it with, like, they
(17:56):
called it mindful compassion.
But having mindfulness, intention, I would say.
You know?
So Well,
I think that's what cannabis can do.
Right?
It can help drop into the body and being morepresent and stopping those stories, which is
part of, like, a large part of mindfulness.
And and, you know, the crux of mindfulness isjust being present.
And and so I see that with cannabis.
(18:18):
It's like that's what it's like.
You do have to be present.
You can't be, like, running around and cleaningyour house and think that, you know, you're
gonna orgasm most likely.
But, you know, from a standpoint of just beingin your body, that that makes a lot of sense.
Now what about because I know some of thestudies are are linking pelvic pain to you
know, and helping with pelvic pain.
So can we talk about some of those studies?
Because I know that's a huge problem for
(18:40):
a lot of women.
Research now that women who have pelvic pain,chronic pelvic pain, there was a study
published in the last few years.
I can send you I think we I might have sent youthe link to that one in particular.
Yeah.
Whereas the the the ability to relax the painand that also goes for vaginismus.
I mean, I don't know.
(19:00):
I haven't seen a actual study on vaginismus incannabis use, but just from talking to women
that it is it it it's the general real it's theability to relax.
Yeah.
But one must also be able in the right in theright mindset, have the right dosage, be with a
(19:21):
partner who they feel safe with.
Mhmm.
You know, and they're in a in an environmentthat's also safe, meaning their kids aren't
gonna get up or come in the room, that they canthey can they can relax.
So creating the environment, for relaxation sothat the pain can dissipate.
(19:42):
Let the letting the the medicine do its magic.
You know?
Like, creating an environment for the medicineto work.
So then have you seen in those studies, haveyou seen that when it comes to pelvic pain,
it's really all about, say, that that acute usethat people use use the cannabis acutely, and
then in that moment, they're less, you know,less in pain and they can enjoy intimacy?
(20:07):
Or have you seen that, hey.
Like, using regularly over time, we canactually lead to a more, like, permanent
reduction in pelvic pain.
Have you noted the difference?
Great great point.
So I'm I can I can share from the sexualdysfunction side versus the pelvic pain side?
Sure.
But on the CASM, there was a study done in 2020evaluating the female sexual function index,
(20:32):
which is, the five domains of sexual function.
You know, arousal, desire, orgasm, pain, andlubrication.
And what they found was that women who wereusing cannabis more frequently were twice as
likely to report, like, a reduction in, sexualdysfunction, like, twenty one percent reduction
(20:57):
in sexual dysfunction.
So the frequency of use is definitelycorrelated for women to improved sexual
functioning.
And doctor Becky Lin, she did a study also.
She's out of St.
Louis.
She's one of the few doctors in the entirecountry, OBGYN, who recommends cannabis, and I
(21:18):
think she prescribes it as well for variousfemale sexual issues.
It was thirty years of having difficultyorgasming.
After seeing fourth best sex therapist overthirty years, found out about cannabis, and I
wanted to try it.
Oh my gosh.
It was shocking.
It changed my life.
People will tell me, like, she goes, oh yeah,like as soon as I take that gummy, like I can
(00:23):
feel arousal.
That has been in the research since theseventies.
This is not new new information.
What's new is actually turning it into policy,making it law.
There's research that shows that the THC incannabis reduces the activity in the amygdala,
(00:43):
the part of the brain that stores trauma.
Women, for example, who have had trauma, sexualtrauma, childhood sexual abuse, which by the
way, the number one sexual complaint of womenwho have had childhood sexual abuse is orgasm
difficulty.
So so tell
us about, like, the research itself.
387 validated surveys of women who were usingcannabis.
(01:05):
They were using it, before sex or not.
They but they were using it.
Fifty three percent or two hundred and two ofthem had reported that they had orgasm
difficulty before partnered sex.
One of the most interesting things in thestudy, the frequency of use is
(01:30):
Hey, everybody.
Doctor Diane here.
Welcome back to the lounge.
I'm so thrilled about the conversation we'regonna have today.
I have the best guest, a new friend of mine.
We're gonna talk about the research she's beendoing, and these studies are blowing my mind,
which she sent over to me to take a look ataround orgasm and female orgasm difficulty,
(01:52):
which is a real legitimate problem.
Right?
I've seen and I'll be interested as I bring onthis next guest to ask her about what she's
seeing with the stats because I've personallyseen anything as as aggressive as only fifteen
percent of women can orgasm by, you know, bypenetration alone.
And then we have other stats around twentypercent or so of women that have never orgasm.
(02:15):
And I've seen stats all over the board, so I'mgonna ask our next guest about what she's seen.
But the point here is this is a real big, bigissue, and it's a common thing that nobody is
talking about.
And people are suffering and thinking there'ssomething wrong with them where it's nothing
wrong.
We just don't have all the tools together.
And the research that this guest is going toshare with us around cannabis and around the
(02:39):
use of cannabis for solving this problem andreally helping women have better orgasms or
their first orgasm finally after, you know, alifetime of struggle here, it's just absolutely
phenomenal.
So doctor Suzanne, thank you so much for comingwith me coming here today with me.
We're gonna have a great time today.
Thank you, doctor Diane.
(03:00):
I'm thank you for inviting me on.
It's it's really a pleasure.
And I would love because we're gonna go intothe research and, you know, give people
supportive ideas and tools and really hopinghelp open up people's minds around this, but
it's such a unique place.
Right?
It's such a unique way of solving this problem,meaning, you know, so much talk in the world is
(03:20):
around testosterone and HRT and all thesethings.
So I'm really curious, like, what initially,like, inspired you really to go down very, very
strongly in this world of research andexploration around cannabis and fee female
orgasm disorder?
Well, it was thirty years of having difficultyorgasming and, dealing with the shame of that
(03:43):
and the feelings of inadequacy, the feelings ofisolation, the the having no place to really at
that time, I mean, in the eighties, there waswe didn't have the Internet.
You know?
We didn't have Reddit where there's a threadwith becoming orgasmic with 30,000, you know,
people talking about their orgasm.
(04:03):
So, after seeing fourth sex sex therapists overthirty years, I stumbled on or somewhere I
found out about cannabis, and I wanted to tryit.
And, it wasn't even a part of a plan.
Like, okay.
Let's try it and see if I can, you know,orgasm.
It just kind of I had had a I had to learn howto use it, first of all, but we can get into
(04:28):
all that.
Like, I'm Yes.
Pretty much.
I'm not want to to surrender, you know, or gointo, like, a different state of consciousness.
But, anyway, I ended up, you know, orgasming,with a partner to my own surprise.
And, I was like, could that have been that?
The cannabis?
It was it was, like, two and a half hoursprevious.
(04:50):
So we ended up trying and, you know, over time,I could orgasm with or without the cannabis in
different ways, and, it changed my life.
I mean, I sold my company in 2020.
I went back for my PhD.
I in 2020, I graduated, last year, did adissertation.
(05:12):
And, anyway, I'll stop there, but that it itdefinitely, it was life changing, and I know I
wanted to see if other women had were sufferingfrom this orgasm difficulty and also finding
cannabis beneficial.
It's so important.
And what I love about your story is is what yousaid around, hey.
Even using this and actually starting down theroad of bringing cannabis in, it sounds like
(05:36):
you actually found then that sometimes youcould after the the induction of Canada
cannabis into your play, then afterwards,you're saying that you could sometimes use
cannabis or not use cannabis.
And either way, you would have an orgasm.
So it just kinda opened that world up.
And that and that that has been in the researchsince the seventies.
(05:58):
This is this is not new information.
What's new is actually turning it into policy,you know, making it law that, for example, the
states of Colorado and the states of Illinoishave added or female orgasm difficulty as a
condition of treatment for medical cannabis.
So we've taken the research and actually put itinto society, into policy.
(06:23):
Yeah.
So it it and and why does it you know, why cana woman what they said even in the seventies.
You know?
It was a book called The Sexual Power ofMarijuana by Barbara Lewis who talked about
women who once they learned how to orgasm withcannabis, they didn't always need it.
Yeah.
So I love it.
And we have neuroplasticity theory.
(06:45):
Yeah.
You know, to we have now we know that the humanbrain, the the adult brain continues to grow
and change.
We didn't used to think that years ago, but Iknow that to be true.
So it's this new learned behavior.
And women in my study, when I, you know, Iinterviewed them, they they say said similar
things, but we can go into that more detail andmore in in a little bit as well.
(07:09):
Yeah.
I definitely want to.
And and I'm as you are talking about, you know,kind of the high level of the mechanism of
what's happening, I know, like, some of whatyou found in research is this almost resetting
of the amygdala.
Right?
And you mentioned in your own, you know, inyour own story that you felt shame around this
not being able to orgasm, which I think is areally common experience.
(07:32):
Like, that was my experience before I figuredout how to orgasm around, like, what's wrong
with me, you know, my broken, you know, thatthing of wanting to show up as a woman and feel
into your sexual body, but also knowing that ithelps partners feel like they're they're able
to provide pleasure, and partners wanna dothat.
And so then there's the shame of lettingsomebody down and all of that messiness.
(07:56):
Yeah.
It's a big package.
It's a big package.
It really is.
It's a complicated thing for sure.
So so what have you then found?
Like like, it's helping the amygdala, like,process trauma better, or it's just kinda
settling down those neurological waves?
Or what do you think is happening there from,like, the that brain standpoint on them?
Great question, Diane.
Doctor Diane.
(08:16):
That's a great question.
So there is, there's research that shows thatthe THC in cannabis reduces the activity in the
amygdala, the part of the brain that storestrauma.
And, that research has led to what I call theamygdala reduction theory that was published
(08:39):
that basically says that women, for example,who have had trauma, sexual trauma, childhood
sexual abuse, which, by the way, the number onesexual complaint of women who have had
childhood sexual abuse is orgasm difficulty.
So, you know, if we can quiet that part of themind that is hypervigilant, and it's trying to
(09:00):
help us.
I mean, it's definitely trying to help us tosay, we're not gonna let that ever happen to
you again.
The the challenge with that in learning how tosurrender into orgasm is that as one woman who
I interviewed shared, she says, you know, herbrain would tell her, you know, you're getting
ready to orgasm.
I'm noticing that you're going to be orgasmingsoon.
(09:21):
And she would be telling her brain, thank you,but I I I'm really would prefer you know, thank
you for that information.
And if we could put that aside for now, becausethat's like spectatoring.
You know, that's not being in the body.
That's stepping out and saying, okay.
Warning.
That's not gonna help.
And she.
So long story short is the the the cannabis,the THC reduces the activity, and that science
(09:46):
has shown that in the part of the brain thatstores the trauma, which can allow women to to
relax the hypervigilance and be in their body.
Yeah.
And what a great thing for the rest of our dayto day life, right, to relax that
hypervigilance and all that.
It's such a gift in so many ways.
(10:06):
It's really, Go ahead.
I mean, who you know, it's like I could sigh,you know, just like for the women, for example,
in my study, we found who had women with orwithout orgasm difficulty who had a sexual
abuse history, had a more positivestatistically significant, more positive orgasm
response using cannabis before sex.
(10:28):
So it's it's been it's scientifically and thisis there's consistency in the research over
fifty years, including anecdotal research.
So it's exciting to finally, like, be talkingabout this and
Yeah.
It really is.
Ready for it.
And like you said, this this stuff is like it'snot new from a standpoint of there's, you know,
(10:49):
there's information that is decades old, butbeing able to have more research and and newer
research and being able to get it into policy,it just brings this awareness.
And I think for for me as, like, a fundamentalscientist, which is what I feel like I am as a
doctor, Like, what I've seen in in working withpatients is if I can show them the study and
the research, then the belief and the abilityto to say take that step to try it is so much
(11:15):
easier.
And so that's a huge part of, I think, what theoffering is here too.
I'm curious about then so so tell us about,like, the research itself.
Like, what I'm curious about is, you know, whois all coming into your study?
Because it sounds like some people with trauma.
Like, are you working with people that havenever had orgasms, that have had orgasms just
(11:35):
sometimes or they're not very strong or theycan only have orgasm through masturbation and
not a partner?
Like, what have you seen kind of in all thesedifferent areas?
Have you worked with these different types ofWell,
I'll focus on the the research I did for mydissertation that got published in sexual
medicine online last year.
It's called the assessment.
I can send you a link.
I have a assessment of the use of cannabis,before partnered sex on women with and without
(11:59):
orgasm difficulty.
So over a thousand women, replied to thesurvey, and, we ended up using 387 validated
surveys of women who were using cannabis.
They were using it, before sex or not.
They they were using it.
And fifty three percent or two hundred and twoof them had orgas had reported that they had
(12:24):
orgasm difficulty before partnered sex.
So one of the most interesting things in thestudy were there were there were a number of
things, but, you know, realizing that therewere some women who thought they had an orgasm
problem.
But when we looked objectivity objectively attheir responses, we've found out that they
(12:49):
really didn't.
We they got moved to the category where theydidn't.
Because if they were able to orgasm sometimesor most times without cannabis, they aligned
with the women who didn't have an orgasmproblem.
The women who had an orgasm problem, almost allthe largest group of them almost never orgasmed
(13:09):
without cannabis.
And to my surprise, that same group of womenalmost always orgasmed with it.
So it was it was shocking in to see it.
Like, when I had organized the data andrealized, like, oh my gosh.
Like, this is really, really helping women.
(13:31):
And they learned it on their own.
Like, there there hasn't really been, atraining.
Like so, anyway, that's, those were it improvedorgasm frequency, orgasm ease, and orgasm
satisfaction for women with and without orgasmdifficulty.
Like, by seventy seven percent of the women fororgasm frequency for women with orgasm
(13:53):
difficulty.
I think it was seven over seventy percent forimproving orgasm satisfaction and sixty seven
so over like, somewhere in there.
I'm getting my numbers mixed up.
But Yeah.
It's phenomenal results.
It's it's the majority.
You know?
We're able to, yeah, improve orgasm frequency,ease, and satisfaction.
Which is phenomenal.
I mean, that just is, like, life changing to somany people.
(14:16):
Did you, by any chance
I'm curious.
Like, did you, by any chance, do anything,like, compare that with, like, masturbation
versus partnered sex?
Was that, like, a criteria in there that youlooked at all?
So we only evaluated we we specifically lookedat the line of just before partnered sex,
because if it was overlapped with masturbation,we'd put number first of all, it was just the
(14:39):
number of questions.
You know, how many questions were women willingto answer?
And, we look specifically at the orgasmsubscale questions, frequency ease and
satisfaction with and without cannabis beforepartnered sex.
Okay.
That was the Because that's the largest groupof women.
It's called situational.
They call it by the diagnostic is just, youknow, the the DSM five.
(15:03):
It's called situational FOD, situational femaleorgasm difficulty.
Yeah.
Which means they can have it in I call itpartnered sex difficulty.
You know?
But it's a difficult situation.
More accurate
in, like, the reality of what it actually is.
And you know what I learned too is is thatwomen who don't have an orgasm problem, they
don't orgasm in all ways.
(15:23):
Yeah.
It's not like, you know, I and that because Ithink we're we're misled into thinking that,
oh, well, she has to orgasm through partner youknow, through oral sex, through vaginal
intercourse, through clitoral stimulation.
You know, like, across the board, she has toorgasm all these different ways in order to
count as not having an orgasm.
(15:45):
No.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's really silly.
It's really silly, especially when we look atstudies that are showing that women and their
neurological systems are, you know, are wireddifferently.
And some woman I women I've seen in studieswhere it's like even the g spot, which we're
now calling more the g zone, is almost, like,hardened where there's not as much nervous
(16:05):
tissue that goes there.
So there's, like, idea of, like, oh, you know,every woman needs to have this g spot orgasm.
Well, if their body is anatomically not wiredthat way, that might be part of part of the
issue there.
You know?
And, I mean, I interviewed a woman, and,actually, she's gone public.
She with her with her story, she is the, hername is Rebecca Anderson, and she is the the
(16:28):
petitioner for the state of Oregon for addingfemale orgasm difficulty as a condition of
treatment with medical cannabis in that state.
Oh, great.
And she talked about having had a radicalhysterectomy following cervical cancer, whereas
her cervix was removed and the upper part ofher vagina and other additional reproductive
(16:48):
organs.
But that you know, from from an orgasmperspective, she lost that's how she orgasmed.
And so she then had what they called acquiredFOD, which means that she used to be able to
orgasm, but she can't any longer.
Like, she lost.
So we always think of women using having orgasmwith clitoral stimulation.
Yeah.
That's not always the case for every woman.
(17:11):
Exactly right.
But the but the point was that she starteddabbling in cannabis using making cannabis
suppositories, and trying different ways to usecannabis and found new ways to orgasm through
the use of cannabis.
And, so anyway, I found that to be, not just afascinating story, but a a study had just come
(17:33):
out last month out of The UK on women withgynecological cancers who were using cannabis
suppositories, just coincidentally.
I mean, here was the research.
And if they used it with mindfulness, there wasa more positive orgasm response.
That makes sense to us today.
Right?
You know, using it with mindfulness.
Exactly.
Because using it by itself, they said it didn'treally work, but using it with, like, they
(17:56):
called it mindful compassion.
But having mindfulness, intention, I would say.
You know?
So Well,
I think that's what cannabis can do.
Right?
It can help drop into the body and being morepresent and stopping those stories, which is
part of, like, a large part of mindfulness.
And and, you know, the crux of mindfulness isjust being present.
And and so I see that with cannabis.
(18:18):
It's like that's what it's like.
You do have to be present.
You can't be, like, running around and cleaningyour house and think that, you know, you're
gonna orgasm most likely.
But, you know, from a standpoint of just beingin your body, that that makes a lot of sense.
Now what about because I know some of thestudies are are linking pelvic pain to you
know, and helping with pelvic pain.
So can we talk about some of those studies?
Because I know that's a huge problem for
(18:40):
a lot of women.
Research now that women who have pelvic pain,chronic pelvic pain, there was a study
published in the last few years.
I can send you I think we I might have sent youthe link to that one in particular.
Yeah.
Whereas the the the ability to relax the painand that also goes for vaginismus.
I mean, I don't know.
(19:00):
I haven't seen a actual study on vaginismus incannabis use, but just from talking to women
that it is it it it's the general real it's theability to relax.
Yeah.
But one must also be able in the right in theright mindset, have the right dosage, be with a
(19:21):
partner who they feel safe with.
Mhmm.
You know, and they're in a in an environmentthat's also safe, meaning their kids aren't
gonna get up or come in the room, that they canthey can they can relax.
So creating the environment, for relaxation sothat the pain can dissipate.
(19:42):
Let the letting the the medicine do its magic.
You know?
Like, creating an environment for the medicineto work.
So then have you seen in those studies, haveyou seen that when it comes to pelvic pain,
it's really all about, say, that that acute usethat people use use the cannabis acutely, and
then in that moment, they're less, you know,less in pain and they can enjoy intimacy?
(20:07):
Or have you seen that, hey.
Like, using regularly over time, we canactually lead to a more, like, permanent
reduction in pelvic pain.
Have you noted the difference?
Great great point.
So I'm I can I can share from the sexualdysfunction side versus the pelvic pain side?
Sure.
But on the CASM, there was a study done in 2020evaluating the female sexual function index,
(20:32):
which is, the five domains of sexual function.
You know, arousal, desire, orgasm, pain, andlubrication.
And what they found was that women who wereusing cannabis more frequently were twice as
likely to report, like, a reduction in, sexualdysfunction, like, twenty one percent reduction
(20:57):
in sexual dysfunction.
So the frequency of use is definitelycorrelated for women to improved sexual
functioning.
And doctor Becky Lin, she did a study also.
She's out of St.
Louis.
She's one of the few doctors in the entirecountry, OBGYN, who recommends cannabis, and I
(21:18):
think she prescribes it as well for variousfemale sexual issues.
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