Night Sweats
Question: My mother has suffered with night sweats for quite a few months now. She is 76 years old, is through the "change", has just had a successful breast removal and is on tamoxifen. She is also on Synthroid and is having other problems with that recently. But the sweats don't seem to have anything to do with the other problems and doctors can't tell her what's wrong. She had shingles quite a while ago and it still acts up. Could the night sweats be associated with the shingles?

Answer: Night sweats can be seen in several diseases. Classically, tuberculosis presents this way, but other diseases like lymphoma and other cancers, and other infections can present this way. If she has had a complete physical and chest x-ray (probably with her cancer) and normal labs (including sedimentation rate or C reactive protein) it probably represents nothing serious. Occasional women on tamoxifen will experience symptoms similar to menopause. This can often be blocked with small doses of clonidine. If this abolished the problem, I'd be fairly comfortable that that's the cause.
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