According to recent research, night sweats are THE most common complaint of menopausal women.They deprive women of sleep and sleep deprived menopausal women are not a pretty sight!!
When your oestrogen is over 120-130 then any further sweating is unlikely to be hormonal and is likely to be due to one or more of the following:
- The weather! Here in Queensland we have a sharp increase in complaints of night sweats after nights of 20 degrees C and humidity of 90% that would raise a sweat on a dead archbishop!
- Thyroid disease: often thyroid is overlooked, or if it is measured, then often the very slight rise in TSH and the normal T4 suggests to some doctors that thyroid can’t be the culprit. But if they measure the thyroid antibodies they would find that sometimes a perfectly normal T4 level is ‘disabled’ by the antibodies! So it can’t function properly. A little touch of thyroid hormone in the night, and Bob’s your proverbial uncle.
- Carbohydrates at dinner: This is a difficult one since many of the medical profession believe that low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia) does not exist outside of diabetes. Well, I suggest they try running an afternoon clinic when all you’ve had for lunch was a Mars bar. (@#@!@# I know, I know, but I’m not perfect!) I had my blood pressure and temperature taken and they were fine, so why did I feel like I was burning up and sweating++? I call it the Mars Bar Effect. Plunges so much sugar into the system all at once that the body sends out an alarm to the pancreas to PLEASE send more insulin to get rid of the high sugar. Mr Pancreas, ever at the alert, responds and boy, does he respond! He sends out so much insulin in a lump that the sugar just HAS to dive, often below fasting levels. Then we have to eat again ‘cos we’re hungry,. We can sense the drop in sugar and that usually means it’s dinner time and we get the signals and, because we’re busy, Bang! Another Mars Bar (or similar) and off we go again. The cycle is not everlasting as Mr Pancreas gets fed up with this and slowly quits over time – hence the slow onset of type 2 diabetes. This poor woman can’t lose weight, is forever hungry and miserable in the way that low sugar can make you so-o-o miserable, and sweating to boot! What’s the answer? A tin of tuna, a meat sandwich or, at dinner, no carbs unless they are vegetables, and certainly no sugar. See a dietician if you can’t manage it alone.
- Hot Partners! It is actually possible to sweat if you are sharing a bed with someone who has a naturally high sleeping temperature. But mostly the women are complaining that their partner is cold ‘cos the woman has shoved away all the clothes and lies bare under the fan! Urgent appointment with the MD, girl! Time to Get Yourself Sorted out!
So now I’m off to bed myself. Cool night, hormones are fine, great dreams coming up!
