night sweats

[cazz]

Hi I am having bad night sweats and sometimes during the day these are not not like the hot flushes I had during menopause which stopped over a year ago. I have hypothyroidism and on 100 mg of Eltroxin as I am starting to feel a bit better in myself wondered if my hormones are playing up or its a symptom of my hypothyroidism

[Mireille]

This is something I suffered severely from as well before any thyroid replacement. I also had severe sweating during the day to the extent that my clothes were drenched and sticking to me. It was embarrassing as I could not go out without strangers asking me if I was alright and if I needed help. My face would be dripping from perspiration and my hair wet and matted.

When starting T4 only replacement these sweats became intolerable and the T4 made me toxic and feeling near death. I am now on a high replacement T3 ONLY therapy and no longer have any of these symptoms.

There are many hypothyroid patients who suffer extreme sweating and this is another symptom NOT recognised by the endocrinology speciality as a hypothyroid symptom. Mention sweating and their immediate thoughts are "reduce the dose of T4" instead of realising that it may be too little T4 or, as in myself, an adverse reaction to T4 only therapy which exacerbated my symptoms.

I have never experienced ANY sweating on T3 ONlY therapy which has saved my life.

Why doesn't the medical profession acknowledge that not everyone can tolerate T4 and why don't they acknowledge that hyper and hypo symptoms can overlap?

[ignored]

That's really interesting, I too suffer from excessive sweating and am told that this is nothing to do with my thyroid, it happens when I am on thyroid replacement and off. I wonder if T3 would be better for me?

[Dr Petros Perros]

DEAR CAZZ,

I DON’T THINK YOUR SWEATS ARE DUE TO THYROXINE. THERE ARE NUMEROUS POTENTIAL CAUSES AND SOMETIMES NO CAUSE CAN BE IDENTIFIED. THE MOST LIKELY CAUSE IS THE MENOPAUSE, BUT IF YOU HAVE NOT DISCUSSED IT WITH YOUR GP, PERHAPS YOU SHOULD.