Introduction
During the menopause (climacteric) the hormone balance of a woman changes fundamentally. This has several consequences for the patient. On the one hand, similar to puberty, the woman’s body has to adapt to very new hormonal conditions. Due to the change of the body and the change of the hormones, patients have to sweat more during the menopause. This can be very annoying for the patient, but there are some things that can be done to reduce sweating during the menopause and thus make the body’s adjustment easier.
Frequency distribution
Every woman enters the menopause at the age of 40-50 years. But not every woman suffers equally from hot flashes and sweating during the menopause. Nevertheless, almost all patients are affected to a greater or lesser extent by the increased sweating during this period. Of course, various factors such as overweight (obesity), diet and exercise play a decisive role here and can significantly reduce (as with exercise) or increase (as with obesity) the extent of sweating.
Causes
The main reason why increased sweating occurs during menopause is due to hormonal changes. The menopause (climacteric) causes the patient to lose more and more female hormones (e.g. oestrogen). This in turn leads to the patient no longer being fertile, as ovulation can no longer be triggered.
The hormone FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) also continues to decrease. Due to this decrease in female hormones, patients may sweat during the menopause and have repeated outbreaks of heat. Depending on how strong the hormonal fluctuations are, excessive sweating may occur during the menopause or the patient may only suffer from occasional heavy sweating. and causes of hot flushes
Symptoms and duration
The severity of the menopausal symptoms varies greatly from patient to patient. A typical symptom of the menopause is increased sweating or recurrent hot flushes. In addition, the period of the patient is missing because the body produces too few female hormones.
Other symptoms often associated with the menopause are mood swings and imbalance. Also the decreasing desire (loss of libido) is typical for the menopause, since the loss of fertility also reduces the desire for sexual intercourse in the woman. Some women suffer from a very dry vagina during the menopause, while others have almost no symptoms at all.
Which symptoms occur and how severe these symptoms are depends very much on the individual patient. However, it is typical that almost all patients sweat more during the menopause. The duration of the menopause also varies greatly from person to person.
It is therefore difficult to assess the exact duration of sweating during the menopause. Overall, a patient is in the menopause until her progesterone and estrogen (female sex hormones) concentrations have reached a minimum. It is also important to emphasize that the menopause process is preceded by a so-called premenopause.
During this time the hormonal conditions of the patient are already altered, the progesterone concentration drops, while the estrogens appear comparatively high. The menopause is followed by the postmenopause, during which hormonal balance is restored. In total, the menopause plus pre- and postmenopause lasts up to 10 years, with many processes going unnoticed.
As the word “menopause” already suggests, this is a process of long duration, namely of years. Overall, the duration of the menopause and the associated symptoms, such as sweating, varies greatly. Most women go through the menopause around 3-8 years, with some patients having so few symptoms that they hardly notice.
It is therefore important that the patient acknowledges this state of upheaval and does not try to fight it or count the years until it is finally over, as the menopause can be very individual and different from patient to patient. A very frequent and for many women very stressful symptom of the menopause is sweating, which is accompanied by feelings of heat. But freezing is also possible.
Typically, a strong sensation of heat precedes the onset of sweating.However, the increased liquid on the skin evaporates and thus cools the skin down, which is why slight freezing can also occur as a symptom after sweating. This is especially the case with night sweats during sleep. Wet sleeping clothes remain on the skin and cool it down.
As a result, it can happen that the affected person wakes up because you start to freeze. Sweating can occur during the menopause both during the day and at night. Night sweats can be caused by an excessive reaction of the autonomic nervous system during the menopause.
This is caused by hormonal changes that are accompanied by a drop in estrogen and progesterone levels. However, persistent very heavy night sweats can also indicate other causes, such as autoimmune diseases or tumor diseases. In particular, if additional symptoms such as unintentional weight loss and fever are present, a medical clarification of the night sweat should take place.
Some women complain of heavy sweating on the head, or the hairy scalp, during menopause. Especially with thick hair, sweating on the scalp is not uncommon. Just as in other parts of the body, there are many small sweat glands, which can also be affected by increased sweating.
Thick hair and headgear such as caps or hats can additionally increase sweating. But light hair can also lead to increased sweating on the head during the menopause. Where and how much you sweat is ultimately a very individual matter.
If you feel very stressed by sweating, a medical consultation is very useful. There are also many small sweat glands in the face, which produce more sweat during the menopause. Hot flushes and a dripping forehead or a wet bridge of the nose are therefore not uncommon.
Women with make-up in particular often have the problem that they sweat more on their face during the menopause and their make-up is not very attractive. In these cases it is advisable to use light make-up which is breathable and matting. Light textures are preferable to highly covering consistencies.
During the menopause, increased sweat production is a common symptom. Hot flushes and outbreaks of sweating sometimes occur at complete rest or during the slightest exertion and strain. The vegetative nervous system is responsible for this, which takes over and controls important functions in the body.
The increased reaction of the so-called sympathetic nervous tissue leads to increased sweating even with the slightest exertion. The extent of sweating varies from woman to woman. About one third of women do not feel at all, another third feel rather lightly and the last third even feel very strongly affected by the symptoms.
