What Are The Causes Of Night Sweats In Women

There are some women who complain of excessive sweating when they are asleep and It can be a common occurrence if the bedroom is quite hot or the person is using too many bed clothes than can cause the body to feel hotter and thus perspire.

However, if the sweating causes the sleeping person to be drenched with both sleepwear and bed sheets getting wet, this is no longer due to a hot room but to other causes. Doctors call the true night sweats in women as severe hot flashes.

Night sweats in women are caused by different factors and a doctor should have detailed medical history of the patient as well as get results from different tests to determine what has been causing the night sweats.

Menopause is one of the reasons for night sweats in women. The hot flashes that occur with the menopausal transition or perimenopause may happen at night rather than during the day.

The symptoms of perimenopause can occur for several years before the actual menopause happens. Excessive sweating may also be caused by a medical condition called hyperhidrosis, a medical condition that has no identifiable cause.

Infections like tuberculosis, bacterial infections such as endocarditis, abscesses, osteomyelitis and HIV can cause night sweats in women. Lymphoma, a type of cancer is also associated with night sweats.

However, those with undiagnosed cancer will exhibit symptoms other than night sweats such as fever and unexplained weight loss.

There are also certain medications that can cause you to sweat excessively at night. Some of these are antidepressants, medicine to lower fever such as acetaminophen and aspirin and drugs that can cause the skin on the cheeks and neck to turn red.

Some may confuse this with night sweats. Other drugs include cortisone, niacin, prednisone, prednisolone, tamoxifen, sildenafil and hydralazine.

Low blood sugar can also cause a person to sweat rather heavily and people who are taking insulin and other oral anti-diabetic drugs may also experience low blood sugar levels while sleeping which can lead to night sweats in women.

Hormonal disorders like hyperthyroidism, carcinoid syndrome or tumors of the small intestine, the colon and appendix and the bronchial tubes, and adrenal gland disorder called pheochromocytoma are also causes of night sweats.

Certain neurologic conditions can also be the cause of night sweats in women such as stroke, autonomic neuropathy, autonomic dysreflexia and post-traumatic syringomyelia.

Autonomic dysreflexia is episodic high blood pressure occurring in people with spinal injury, autonomic neuropathy is a group of symptoms associated with damage to the nerves that control blood pressure and heart rate, digestion and emptying of the bladder and bowel.

Post-traumatic syringomyelia (PTS) develops when there is fluid build up around the area where a spinal cyst has been removed. Pain, spasms, muscle weakness and sweating occurs in PTS.

As there are several underlying causes of excessive sweating it is best to have a complete medical check up. This will help you identify what actually causes the night sweats in women so you will be able to take the right medication.