Men’s Health Month 2025: what the UK’s largest cannabis study reveals about men’s health

True Stoic thought has never been about hiding from emotional pain or shutting the world out. It teaches us to see things for what they truly are, accepting that certain things are out of our control, and responding to our daily battles with reason over fear, and compassion over aggression. 

That type of clarity of thought and understanding of what we can and cannot control sits at the very heart of many modern men's health journeys. 

Taking ownership of the things we can change (our sleep, our habits, our routines, and the way we handle both our physical and mental health challenges) is where progress prospers, and medical cannabis treatment fits very neatly into that mindset. Just last month, we released the Releaf UK Medical Cannabis Patient Survey 2025. This was the largest study of active UK medical cannabis patients ever conducted, and the results that men are finding are worth unpacking. 

A growing community of male patients

While we can’t publish specific patient data due to medical confidentiality laws, the scale of male participation in the study shows a lot. Of the 1,669 respondents, 1,118 were men. 

Many might assume that the majority of male medical cannabis patients in the UK would be under the age of 30. Men who have a long history of recreational cannabis use. Men who are simply looking for a way to ‘go legal’, but that is simply not what the data shows. Over 34% had ‘little’ or ‘no prior’ cannabis experience whatsoever. 

More than 75% were between the ages of 35 and 64, representing working men, fathers, and beyond. Many men in this age bracket reported carrying decades of physical and emotional strain, which is clearly shown in the breakdown of the most common conditions being treated.

Which conditions and/or symptoms are UK men being prescribed Releaf medical cannabis for in 2025?

The people of the UK are now more aware of medical cannabis legality than ever before, and with that awareness comes the understanding that medical cannabis can be legally prescribed for a wide range of health concerns. 

Chronic pain sits at the centre of men’s treatment journeys

• Medical cannabis for chronic pain accounts for just shy of 50% of male prescriptions.
• Conditions include back pain, arthritis, sciatica, fibromyalgia, and neuropathic pain.
• Many men lived with symptoms for ten years or more before seeking treatment.
• The level of ongoing pain often reported disrupts sleep, mood, and energy, limiting daily life.

Medical cannabis has been shown to help with easing that constant level of underlying pain, smoothing out the spikes of heavy discomfort, and giving patients enough room to finally find restful sleep so that their body and mental state can reset, recover, so they can face the day with balance rather than just pure will and endurance. 

Mental health challenges affect almost one in three men

• Medical cannabis for mental health concerns covers almost 32% of male prescriptions.
• Anxiety, depression and PTSD are the most common psychiatric conditions that male Releaf patients are treated for.
• Many of the male study respondents reported that they had historically delayed seeking help until symptoms became unmanageable.

While medical cannabis treatment is individualised, and this is very much true when prescribed for mental health conditions, many of the men who took part in the study found that their Releaf prescription helps them turn down the intensity of their specific symptoms. When the mind is locked in that ‘fight-or-flight’ mode, or when a bout of depression hits, it can be hard to differentiate between real threats and the types of everyday stresses that simply don’t warrant that level of alarm. 

Medical cannabis treatment may bring a level of calm that helps patients become less reactive, less prone to being overwhelmed, and better at choosing their responses rather than being driven by them.

Neurological and sleep disorders add to the overall burden

• 9.6% of men who responded to the study are being primarily treated for a neurological condition, and sleep disorders account for 6.7% (although almost 30% of men reported sleep issues as a secondary symptom).
• There is a huge overlap between pain, stress, and mental health conditions.

How effective is Releaf medical cannabis for men in the UK?

The data is quite clear here. The male participants of the study found that their Releaf prescriptions overwhelmingly translated to rapid, effective symptom control. 

A fast-acting treatment that fits men’s needs

34.3% reported noticing benefits from the very first dose, 21.4% within one day of starting treatment, and 28.6% within one week. Combined, 84.3% found that the symptomatic burden was heavily reduced within a week, and that number jumped all the way up to 94.4% within the first month.

Strong symptom relief across a wide range of conditions

43.1% of men described their Releaf prescription as ‘very effective’, and 36.9% as ‘extremely effective’. Combined, that's an even 80% of men rating their legal UK medical cannabis treatment as highly effective. Less than 0.5% of respondents reported no benefit, which is very telling of the potential of cannabis-based therapy.

Improvements in the patient’s overall quality of life

A whopping 97.2% of all male respondents reported experiencing an improvement in their overall quality of life. This is potentially the most striking figure to come out of the entire dataset, and shows that a Releaf prescription can really help patients searching for holistic, steady, and ongoing improvements in not only their main symptoms, but also their ability to find joy and peace in their day-to-day life. 

Everyday tasks and work performance improve with Releaf medical cannabis treatment

We have just gone over the impact on daily functioning, but those improvements also spill over into productivity and emotional clarity. 

• 42.5% of men reported that they found ‘significant improvements’ when trying to perform daily tasks, with 39.4% reporting ‘slight improvements’ in the same category.
• A very similar set of data shows up when discussing work and study, with 39.3% seeing ‘significant improvements' and 30.6% saying they felt a ‘slight improvement’.

• Nearly 70% felt better able to manage responsibilities.

Stigma around medical cannabis as a legitimate treatment option is declining, but not gone

80% of men reported never having to face stigma when discussing their choice to pursue a medical cannabis prescription, but 20% stated that they still ‘felt judged’. 

In 2025, the fact that 1 in 5 men still faced a certain level of stigma clearly highlights how cultural attitudes and understanding often lags behind clinical and anecdotal evidence, even more so when it comes to a treatment option that has gone through over a century of misrepresentation in mainstream circles. 

The Releaf Medical Cannabis Card provides confidence and legitimacy

All Releaf medical cannabis patients receive a UK medical cannabis card, delivered within five day of payment of their first prescription order. These cards have been designed and produced with support from the UK police, and make it easy for patients to clearly identify themselves as legitimate, fully legal UK medical cannabis patients. 

• 72.6% of men always carry their Releaf medical cannabis card.
• Around 60.8% feel ‘very confident’ using it, with another 30.4% feeling ‘somewhat confident’.

Releaf is the most-trusted UK medical cannabis clinic (with more than 3500 Trustpilot reviews and an aggregate score of 4.7/5), and our medical cannabis card is just one of the ways we help patients feel protected, understood, and confident enough to take their treatment without fear of reprisal or legal issues.

Why Men’s Health Month matters for medical cannabis patients

Men’s Health Month is ultimately about men reclaiming their agency and feeling comfortable to seek out the help they need, whether that be through medical cannabis treatment or any number of other avenues. 

The data we collected in the largest study of active UK medical cannabis patients ever conducted paints a pretty clear picture: 

The vast majority of patients who receive a Releaf medical cannabis find that it not only helps reduce the impact of the symptoms connected to their primary condition, and does so quickly, but also boosts their overall quality of life in ways that reach far beyond the original issue they came to treat.

If you’re curious about whether this type of treatment could support your own health, you can try our UK medical cannabis eligibility checker. It’s free, takes under 20 seconds, and offers a simple starting point for understanding your options.