Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Professor, researcher, pharmacist, and women's health expert, Dr. Nese Yuksel, was awarded the Canadian Institute of Health Research's (CIHR) - Institute of Gender and Health (IGH) Women's Health Clinical Mentorship Grant last week. The aim of the grant is to advance clinical research in women's health and build capacity in the next generation of women's health clinician-researchers.
Dr. Nese Yuksel will be investigating cannabis use in menopause, which has traditionally been under-researched. She will be training and mentoring Katherin Babyn, a Master's student at the Faculty, throughout this one-year project.
"Funding that supports clinical research in women's health is so important, and so is the development of our future women's health researchers," say Dr. Nese Yuksel. "We are very excited for how this grant will help us understand if women in menopause are using cannabis to help with their symptoms, and what their experiences have been like. We will be going to the women to learn from their experiences with cannabis and hopefully translate our findings to support menopausal women in the future."
Hormonal changes during menopause can lead to a variety of symptoms. The use of cannabis for medical purposes has grown in Canada since the legalization of recreational cannabis in 2018, with one of the largest growing markets being people in midlife. Dr. Yuksel's research will aim to study women who may be choosing cannabis to help with symptoms commonly seen in menopause. The purpose of her study is to describe the experiences and perspectives of menopausal women with cannabis, if and how menopausal women are using cannabis, and conduct surveys and interviews of women in menopause at the interdisciplinary Edmonton Menopause Clinics to gather data.