Suffering from bad axillary HH, any advice would be awesome!

JBrown · Newbie User Joined: Sep 15, 2006 Posts: 4

Hey everybody,
I'm a 21 year old male in California who's been suffering from mainly axillary (underarm) HH since I was about 15 or so...I'm not sure why I've waited so long to research my problem, but I've been amazed at what I've learned just in the last couple of hours on the Internet. I guess I was too embarassed to talk to anyone about it until now.

Anyways, I will be scheduling an appointment with a dermatologist hopefully for sometime early next week so I can talk about HH with him/her, but I wanted to hear what some of you all with HH have to say about treatment, how you've dealt with your axillary HH, etc.

First maybe a little more info about my HH will help....
I find my HH invariably acts up in social situations, whether it be talking to people in person, on the phone, even chatting online. My HH also acts up when I'm nervous or anxious, or overly excited about something, although those feelings go hand in hand a majority of the time. Several times daily, my axillary HH is so bad that sweat will literally drip/pour down my arms and down to my waist. I always wear dark and relatively loose clothes so the wet marks won't show, and I hate having to decide what to wear every day based on what will hide the sweat the best. I usually wear an undershirt if I'm wearing a shirt and tie so the sweat will take longer to get to the dress shirt, which it inevitably does. Dry-fit shirts are my best friend. I avoid bright-colored shirts and suits like the plague if I can. I sweat more than the average person during exercise and during hot weather, but I can deal with that. It's the pits that are torture. My HH makes me want to avoid any sort of activity that involves raising my arms; when I give friends and family hugs I always wonder if they've noticed my problem. I'm too embarrased to tell my girlfriend of a year about my problem (I'm not sure if she's noticed and just not said anything or if I've just done a really good job of hiding it from her).

For the past few years I've used only regular name-brand antiperspirants (like Old Spice, Right Guard) in vain, which have done absolutely nothing to help. Only today have I read about other products, like Certain-Dri, Maxim, and Odaban, Drysol and about alternative treatments.

I'm mainly wondering which topical remedies, such as the ones I mentioned above or others, if any, you all would recommend to someone with moderate/severe (I'm guessing) axillary hyperhydrosis.

Reading what you all have posted on forums like this and visiting sites such as that of the International Hyperhidrosis Society (www.sweathelp.org) have really given me new hope that I can someday soon go about my day to day life without having to constantly worry and check to see if I am sweating through my shirts.

Sorry for this rather long post, but any advice or personal experience with axillary HH and which topical treatments you have tried and have worked/not worked would be greatly, greatly appreciated. If any of the products you guys have used are readily available in American drugstores (Walgreens, Longs Drugs....etc.), that would be extra helpful.

Thanks a lot,
J

Pinker · Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:54 pm Post subject:

Hey sorry about how the sweating has impacted on your way of living but things will get better now you know there are treatments.

You should deffinitely buy a roll on applicator like you mentioned such as Certain-Dri/Maxim/Drysol and use this daily to begin with. These alone may well stop your sweating unless its really bad. They're widely available as well. This will be the first thing your derm will tell you to use. Odaban is a little different that its a spray and causes less irritation, but all these things are pretty much essentially the same with a different name.

The most effective technique is botox injections, which may stop the sweating for months, but as you might have read people say its very expensive as it's not covered by insurance in most cases I think.