Hi - obviously I sincerely hope that the sweats are being caused by the menopause, or something equally harmless.
However, they might not be. Several types of cancer, including kidney cancer definitely, and I think lymphona as well, can have symptoms of night sweats (I believe it's the body's immune system desperately going into feverish overdrive to try and counter the growing cancer).
I know what I'm talking about - a year ago my husband was having night sweats, but, fatally, like so many people, we didn't report them to his GP, or do anything about them, and we didn't look them up on the Internet until he'd developed a persistant cough as well. Both turned out to be signs of advanced kidney cancer, of which he died just before Christmas.
I know I'm going to sound like Doom and Gloom Merchant Number One, BUT, in the end, it's your life, and ONLY YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES care about it. So, please, go to your doctor, get them to take bloods to check both hormone levels to ascertain whether you are definitely going into menopause, and to run cancer tests on where possible.
Our forties and fifites are PRIME TIMES for cancer to get going - the stats on cancer incidence just SOAR in middle age, so please take every precaution to catch it early, while it's still so, so much more curable.
Most night sweats and other forms of hyperhydrosis (excessive sweating) are completely non-fatal, but sometimes that is not the case, so please do get checked.
If your GP is uncooperative, or thinks you a neurotic fuss-making idiot (!), then you can always pay for a private CT scan through the private sector. The cost will range from around £500-£800. Yes, it's a lot of money, but a CT scan from neck to groin will reveal invaluable health infomation about your self, spot any tumours at an early (ie, highly treatable) stage, and will also highlight a good many heart disease risks which may as yet have no symptoms in you.
Night sweats should ALWAYS be reported to your GP, who should ALWAYS investigate their true cause. Only when you have ruled out the potentially fatal causes can you assume the cause is something harmless (if unpleasant!) like menopause.
All the very best to you, and PLEASE make that GP appointment for next week. It's your life. Only you can save it.
JulieJ
(Again, sorry for sounding like a Doom Merchant, but I just wish to God we had known how dangerous night sweats were - we might have saved my husband's life. Now he's dead at 55, and our l5 year old son faces his life without his dad. It's a tragedy that should never have happened, and with adequate warning, checks, tests and screening - and AWARENESS of the dangers of cancer - it would not have happened.)
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