While there is surely plenty to take into account with a new pregnancy, one of the most commonly reported experiences among pregnant people is nausea, with around half of expecting pregnant folks experiencing it. While symptoms vary in severity, pregnancy-related nausea can strike at any time, with varying severity.
Usually, this is treated with any number of conventional pharmaceutical drugs, but these treatments don’t work for all pregnant people. Additionally, if someone is unable to eat during a pregnancy because of severe nausea, it carries serious and fatal implications for the fetus, including low birth weight among infants, miscarriages, dehydration, encelopathy and depression.
However, a new study published in the journal Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde found that cannabis may actually work better than prescription drugs to treat pregnancy-related nausea. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles partnered with researchers from Oregon’s Hyperemesis Education and Research foundation to poll 550 people who experienced nausea during pregnancy.
The study utilized a 21-question survey to collect data. Along with basic demographic information, the survey requested details of respondents’ most recent pregnancies, including information weight loss, weight gain, the most effective medication for treatment and whether or not participants used cannabis or cannabis products to aid in symptom management for pregnancy-related nausea and, if they did use cannabis, why.
The vast majority of respondents, 96%, said they used antiemetic medications, and 14% said they used cannabis. Additionally, most of those reporting cannabis use said they pursued the alternative because antiemetics didn’t effectively treat their nausea.
More than half of cannabis users reported using products daily or multiple times a day (53%), primarily through smoke inhalation (59%), mainly utilizing either delta-9 THC or THC-dominant products (57%). Eighty-two percent of cannabis users reported symptom relief, compared to 60% of prescription antiemetic users. Regarding weight loss during pregnancy, 56% of cannabis users reported gaining weight within their first two weeks of treatment, while just 25% of prescription antiemetic users reported the same.
Researchers note that the study is limited due to self-reporting, though it’s not the first study to suggest that cannabis or cannabis products could effectively treat pregnancy-related nausea. A 2006 Westfall survey similarly found that pregnant people using cannabis for pregnancy-related nausea reported that it was effective to treat symptoms and stimulate appetite. Another 2020 study found that pregnancy-related nausea relief appears to be a major incentive for prenatal cannabis use.
There were also a number of concerns noted in the new study: Most respondents who used cannabis were new users, and most respondents attributed their cannabis use to the inadequacy of available prescription medications. While the authors note that the safety of cannabis during pregnancy is “currently unclear,” they follow by stating that the safety profiles of prescription antiemetics are similarly not well-studied.
“Our survey underscores pressing needs to both evaluate effectiveness of traditional treatments with respect to both symptom improvement and weight gain and to explore new ones,” the authors wrote.
“This study adds to the growing literature supporting antiemetic properties of cannabis and cannabinoid compounds while also suggesting their potential to treat [HG, or hyperemesis gravidarum, the extreme version of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy]… A minority of respondents in this survey reported using cannabis for HG; however, those who used cannabis or CBPs [cannabis-based products] reported more frequent relief from HG symptoms compared to those who used prescription antiemetics,” the authors concluded.
They added that, while cannabis products could be perceived as a more effective alternative, more research is still needed to understand its mechanism and safety.
“In the meantime, providers must weigh unknown risks of recommending cannabis… with the well-established risk of adverse and fetal outcomes for refractory HG.”
