These comments are made for the purpose of discussion and should NOT be used as recommendations for or against therapies or other treatments. An individual patient is always advised to consult their own physician.
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.
