Personal Experience of Hyperhidrosis – Noor, Canada

A Quick Note:

Personal experience of hyperhidrosis from Noor, 16m Canadian, having hyperhidrosis since the age of 9. Noor very kindly sent this to me via email and is now on the site ready for people to read.

My Story

To start off I’d say that looking back on my hyperhidrosis, so long as I didn’t shake anyone’s hand or high five I was fine, socially speaking. Topical medications like Drysol and Odaban didn’t work. They sit in my medicine cabinet, and will stay there forever until I decide to throw them out. When I tried to get a doctor to listen to me all they would say is that there isn’t really anything else I could do besides use topical meds or botox. So eventually I caved in to botox and my doc booked me for an appointment at some random doctor’s office in my city for some more insight. I came out of that office more against getting botox than ever. Hell naw I ain’t getting injections into my hands every few months. My parents thought that if I stopped sweating so much that I’d get a lot of health issues and might die. (even though my dad graduated university, twice, with an honours in engineering and a specialization (full ride scholarship, might I add), he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to health lol).

Anyways, so I held my head high and kept looking for solutions while going about in my daily life. Also, to those worrying about your HH influencing your relationships with a person you like, don’t worry about it too much. I found two people who were okay with my HH and I was in a long term relationship with both of them. People who dislike you for having HH are not the people who you should be hanging out with, screw ’em dude.

Now to the solutions. Once I moved to a different area and subsequently got a new doctor, everything worked out. He put me through to a specialist and the specialist gave me a prescription for Oxybutynin. This medication is used originally to treat other non-related symptoms. However it can also be used for treating hyperhidrosis. My hyperhidrosis is all over my body but is more active in my hands, feet, armpit, butt and groin area. A little gross to think about but I think a lot of people can relate to me here. Oxybutynin solves all of my sweating for at least the next 8 hours, if not the next 10 or 12 hours. I take 10mg once in the morning and it lasts me all throughout the school day (8am-4pm). If I have anything planned for the evening or the night then I’ll pop half a pill (2.5mg) of Oxybutynin and I’ll be good to go.

So to conclude:

HH didn’t affect me in social situations a whole lot, but it did hinder me from accomplishing some tasks. It’s all about mindset
Go to a doctor and talk to them about solutions, maybe you’ll find a better one than I did (Oxybutynin 10mg once in the morning)
My doctor said that it’s very case-by-case, so if you get Oxybutynin play around with the dosage ’til you find the dose that works for you. A warning though, sometimes your eyes might become dry and sensitive to light. Drowsiness is also a side effect but happens rarely.

Disclaimer

As normal I urge you to appreciate that Noor isn’t giving medical advice and is only writing about his personal experiences of hyperhidrosis. Should you want to investigate any solutions from Noor’s post then I advise you contact a medical professional.

Further Reading:

http://www.drugs.com/comments/oxybutynin/for-hyperhidrosis.html

http://www.hyperhidrosisuk.org/treatment-options/medications.html