As those of us who've groped around our bathroom cabinets for anti-inflammatories while clutching heat packs to our aching abdomens know, sometimes being a woman is a massive pain. Literally.

Dysmenorrhea - AKA period pain - is incredibly common and in one out of five cases can be so severe it stops you from doing your daily activities.

Dr Mike Armour from the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NCIM) Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University, says period pain is especially prevalent in young women.

About 90 per cent of Australian women under 25 suffer from period pain on a relatively regular basis.

Despite that, there's not a whole lot of science or research into the condition.

"I think there's been a culture of silence around periods which means they can't be discussed. I often say that I can't talk about my research around the dinner table," Dr Armour told Hack.

"Women perhaps also don't know their periods are problematic or abnormal because they're often told by their mums, their friends or even their doctors that period pain is just normal, it's just part of being a woman and you just need to suck it up," he explains.

Limits to existing period pain treatment

Dr Armour says existing treatments for period pain, like over the counter pain medication, anti-inflammatories, heat packs and exercise, have their limitations.

"A lot of women say they remove some of my pain, but not all of it."

So he and fellow NICM researcher Justin Sinclair are looking at other treatments.

Like medicinal cannabis.

The pair conducted a small survey late last year on how women with endometriosis, a chronic and painful condition, manage their symptoms. Cannabis was brought up a lot.

"Over 50 per cent of women who were utilising cannabis for their symptoms in the survey, which was about one in 10, had a reduction of 50 per cent of their pharmaceutical usage," Mr Sinclair told Hack.

"They also showed fairly significant improvements across the domains of things like anxiety, depression, sleep, nausea, vomiting and gastro-intestinal upsets. These are fairly common symptoms that women with endometriosis experience," he says.

Have you used cannabis to treat period pain? Tell us about your experience via DM or email at hack@abc.net.au

It led the pair to question whether medicinal cannabis had applications for primary dysmenorrhea - that is, period pain that's not caused by other conditions like endometriosis or polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).

"We're running some focus groups to find out what women are currently using, how they're managing their pain, what impact it's having and then have a discussion about how they would feel about using something like medicinal cannabis," Dr Armour says.

You don't have to have previously used cannabis to manage pain to take part in the focus group.

"We're looking for around 20 women aged 18 to 45, and they need to have moderate or greater period pain and they need to have no known cause for that period pain such as a diagnosis of endometriosis."

The results of that focus group will determine if there's enough evidence to progress to a clinical trial.

If you're interested in participating in the focus group, you can find out more here.

Still many barriers to access

Mr Sinclair says medicinal cannabis is hard to access for pain relief.

"There are doctors that are prescribing legal medicinal cannabis for endometriosis at the moment... They prescribe for chronic pain in adults, and what doctors can do is they can put in chronic pain secondary to endometriosis."

But it's still rare.

"I've got three doctors that have contacted me now saying they've all had successful applications for that."

Mr Sinclair says finding a doctor to prescribe medicinal cannabis remains one of the biggest barriers for patients.

"Their doctors might not be educated...They might be dismissive to their patients," he says.

Even if patients find an authorised prescriber of medicinal cannabis, the impact on their wallets can make them think twice.

The cost around legal cannabis can be anywhere between $250 and $350 a month, which is larger than you'd pay in the illicit market.

Mr Sinclair says stigma, and concern over breaking the drug-driving laws or workplace health and safety requirements, are the other barriers.

"Currently if you got pulled over and tested by a roadside drug test, theoretically the police would still be able to prosecute you. Obviously, it would go to court, and we're not sure what would happen there, but there's no changes to the drug-driving laws for medicinal cannabis laws," he says.

The ACT last year legalised cannabis for recreational use. Those laws will come into place at the end of January. However, the territory has not altered its drug-driving laws, and drivers can still be tested for traces of cannabis.