Embarrassing Illnesses

Hyperhidrosis is a condition that causes excessive sweating. While hyperhidrosis does not pose a serious threat to health, it can cause significant emotional and psychological distress, embarrassment and can have a negative impact on a person’s quality of life.

Types of hyperhidrosis

There are two types of hyperhidrosis:

• focal hyperhidrosis, where only certain parts of the body are affected, such as the armpits, hands, feet or face, and
• generalised hyperhidrosis, where the entire body is affected.

Hyperhidrosis can also be either:

• primary idiopathic hyperhidrosis, where there is no apparent cause for the excessive sweating, and
• secondary hyperhidrosis, where the excessive sweating is the result of an underlying health condition, such as an overactive thyroid gland.

Most cases of focal hyperhidrosis are primary. Generalised hyperhidrosis is usually secondary.

How common is hyperhidrosis?

Hyperhidrosis is fairly common. An estimated 3% of people in England (1.53 million) are affected.

Primary hyperhidrosis typically begins during the teenage years or early adulthood (between 20 and 25). It affects men and women equally.

Secondary hyperhidrosis can begin at any age and depends on the underlying health condition.

Outlook

Perhaps the biggest challenge in treating hyperhidrosis is that so many people are reluctant to seek medical advice, either because of embarrassment or a mistaken belief that nothing can be done to improve their symptoms.

However, the outlook for hyperhidrosis is good and there is a range of different treatments that have proved effective in controlling symptoms.