Hyperhidrosis–A Foreign Perspective on a Global Problem.
Hyperhidrosis SUCKS! That being said, I trust that most of the readers will agree with me, that not only does hyperhidrosis affect your sweat glands – it also affects your life. This is my story of my fight with hyperhidrosis.
I’m a 20 y.o. male from a small European country called Latvia. Living in a small country is pretty much like living in a small village – if there’s a problem, it most probably won’t be talked about, hoping it will eventually go away.
The same was with hyperhidrosis – it still seems that I’m the one of the few willing to talk openly about this subject and the way it affects people’s lives. But things are getting better, I’m no longer looked upon as possessed by the devil and people are recognizing hyperhidrosis as an illness.
I started noticing my excessive sweating problem somewhere around the 7th grade – I had just gone through quite a stressful change of schools (which I’m sure added to the sweat-factors) and all of a sudden my very cool distinctive green t-shirts (which were sort of my “thing” during school) started having these round, sweaty areas in the armpits.
One of my classmates noticed it and made a remark “Dude, you’re really sweating,” and that’s when I realized that I had a problem.
At first, I didn’t put much thought to it, believing, that the sweat will eventually go away. But, as time went by, it only started to get worse.
I could literally be calm as a breeze, but I’d sweat like it was 35 C – the same even on a cold winter’s day, when the temperature outside would drop to some -20 C, I’d still be dripping wet, even though shaking from the cold. Not to mention stressful situations like exams dates, later on job interviews etc.
When I was about 15 I overcame my shame and went to my doctor and asked if she could prescribe something to relieve my problem. I ended up being prescribed with some vitamin-mineral complex and anti-anxiety herbal medicine. Of course none of them worked, and I was left alone with my sweaty pits.
(I still haven’t quite understood how she thought vitamins could help me.?.)
Understanding that doctors (at least here, in Latvia) will not be able to help me, I decided to take manners into my own hands and started researching my problem. I went on the Internet, googled every last page on excessive sweating, but still couldn’t find anything that could help me (I did the searching in Latvian pages only).
That was sort of a low point in my life, because I thought no one could help me – the typical teenage behavior, mixed with the fact that none (absolutely NONE) of the anti-perspirants on the market would help me.
I spent tons of money on new hyperhidrosis antiperspirants(Gilette, Old Spice, Mennen, Rexona and so on), all of them piling up in the bathroom, not making my mum the happiest person on the planet.
But I did manage to somehow cope with the situation – I only bought sweat-friendly colored clothes (white, black, dark blue etc.), matched t-shirts with sweaters and jackets so that my armpits would be covered all the time. It did bring some confidence back into my life – I could finally feel comfortable around people, I could date, meet new people etc.
When I turned 18 I met my current girlfriend – she still is my one true love and she was a person I could totally trust. I indulged my problem with her, because I knew she would be understanding – not only that, she also revealed that her younger sister was having the same type of problems (before that I just thought wearing two t-shirts was her thing).
And that’s when it hit me – I am not alone! That meant there had to be other people like me – and when there are people, there are solutions.
I then turned to mother Google once again, this time searching English pages for ‘excessive sweating’.
That’s when I stumbled upon the term ‘hyperhidrosis’. I did some research on the condition and understood that I was having all of the symptoms.
I can’t quite express the relief I had when I understood that this was an illness, not a unique problem that only effected me. This meant for me that there HAD to be a cure for it.
After some months spent researching hyperhidrosis online, I came to a few conclusions:
1) There are ‘common’ antiperspirants, and then there are ‘professional’ ones like CertainDri, Drysol and Maxim.
2) There’s always the possibility of an operation on the nerve that controls sweating (not done in Latvia, of course).
3) And then there’s botox injections for hyperhidrosis, which, to my surprise were actually available in Latvia, but the $400 – $600 price range had me thinking
Having left with no other options, I decided to try more natural ways of curing the sweating problem, because I wasn’t (and still to this day) am not convinced that the invasive procedures are the best.
I purchased CertainDri from Ebay, and used it for a month or so, while the package lasted. To tell you the truth, it didn’t work wonders on me. It did have a minor effect during the first week (maybe just a placebo effect), but later on it just served as a deodorant.
For a year or so I once again got fed up with fighting the sweats, so I just stopped doing anything about it. I still wore armpit covering clothing, but nothing else.
A month ago I did a search in a Latvian search engine for the term hyperhidrosis, and to my surprise, I found a handful of pages about it! People in medical forums had actually started to talk about it!
I started reading the experiences others had had, painfully similar to mine…And that’s when I first noticed that someone was saying something about an anti-perspirant called ‘Maxim.’
I Googled Maxim and found it to be the only ‘professional’ antiperspirant that’s actually available here, in Latvian pharmacies. The same day I went to my closest pharmacy, purchased it for about $25, and I’m telling you, it’s WORTH EVERY DIME!
It’s like being on cloud #9! No longer do I have to worry about raising my arms, putting them behind my head, taking off my jacket or stuff like that. I apply Maxim as stated in the instruction and the results are stunning. My armpits are not dry as a desert, though, so I can’t say that it clogs all the sweat glands, but maybe that’s even a good thing!
Instead I am now having normal perspiration that isn’t even visible on my favorite green colored t-shirts! (Occasional invisible dampness a couple of times a day, but no longer the floods of sweat that could ruin any shirt.)
I am noticing that I don’t have to use it every night now. It suffices with three, four times a week.
My girlfriend’s saying that I’m born a new man and I truly feel like it! Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this, and remember, there’s always a solution.
Like it’s being stated on this site, experiment, try different things, methods, and I’m sure that you’ll stumble upon your hyperhidrosis panacea sooner or later.
Sincerely,
Karlis
Riga, Latvia
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Hey Karlis,
i also tried maxim and it worked great for me, but the second bottle i got didn’t work the same, i was wondering if the same thing happened to you? i heard that overtime the body naturally fights against roll-on antiperspirants which sucks because it was working great for me but now it doesn’t and i don’t know what to do…
Hi Karlis,
That was one of the best Hyperhidrosis stories that’s ever been posted! I love how you show the problem from different perspectives. I’m glad you found some relief, and thank you for your kind words.
Keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Chris Mechanic
Yeah, it actually happened to me – sometime through the second bottle the effect did wear off. I’m currently using Odaban spray, which I’m purchasing from ebay.co.uk (as the shipping rates to Latvia are more reasonable, than from the the global ebay). It costs about 15$ per bottle and the whole applying process can be a bit frustrating, but, man, is it worth it!
I have managed to reduce the application rate to 2 times a week and it works like a charm. For me the bottle lasts for about three months (should last longer by my current app. rate) and I’m currently on my third bottle after approx. 10 months of usage – the spray still works great.
I believe the secret, as mentioned in the previous post, is the fact, that Odaban is a spray not a roll-on anti-perspirant. BUT (I can’t epmhasize this enough) you really have to follow the instructions exactly, otherwise it won’t work as well as it should (tested).
Anyway, it works great for me, but it doesn’t mean it will do the same wonders for you. It is great, though, that you can use the spray to fight facial, palm and feet sweating problems as well.
Hope I could help,
Karlis
Riga, Latvia