excessive sweating

If it's any consolation Katalin, the apocrine (smelly) type of sweat starts to phase out after the menopause - assuming you don't take HRT - and disappears completely in old age. Who says there are no advantages to getting old? But sadly, the type that runs down your face, drips off your chin, sticks your hair to your head, soaks your clothes and makes you look a total mess when everyone else on the bus is completely dry never goes away!

What you think about HRT ?

Well, I think it's up to every woman to make her own choice, without being bullied by her doctor - in either direction. Happily, we've moved on from the dark days of the 1980s and 90s when the feminist movement also tried to bully women into taking HRT. Or at least I hope we have.

I hit the menopause in 1989, at the relatively early age of 45 - a family trait. Although I'd taken the contraceptive pill on and off for 20 years - and at the higher doses they contained in those days - I looked at HRT and decided that for me the risks of taking it outweighed the benefits. The risks were never all that high, but I decided not to continue messing with my hormones at a time when my body was ageing and perhaps less able to cope with this. But it will be different for every woman.

My female GP was horrified - threatened me with all sorts of terrible outcomes if I didn't take it, and generally made me feel like the only woman in Belgium who wasn't on it (which I probably almost was at that time!) In the end she said she couldn't continue as my doctor unless I took it. Fortunately, we have an over-supply of doctors in this country so that was no problem!

Then, about 10 years ago, when there was a flurry of interest in the risks of HRT, all the same doctors who'd been urging women to go on it suddenly started taking them off it because they said it was dangerous to take HRT for more than a few years! It seemed crazy to me, as the risks hadn't changed, and remained real but small. But that's the medical establishment for you.

In reality, there is a very small increased risk of breast cancer and stroke associated with long-term use of HRT. Equally, there's a real risk of osteoporosis if one doesn't take HRT, especially for women whose mothers suffered from it (like mine). However, this can be counteracted by lifestyle (weight-bearing exercise, not smoking, avoiding both obesity and excessive thinness) and calcium, magnesium, vitamin D3 and K2 supplements for the rest of your life. There are also medications you can take (bisphosphonates etc.) if simpler measures don't work.

I had my first bone density scan the year of the menopause, and was already in osteopenia (prelude to osteoporosis) at that time. In the 27 years since then, my bone density has gone up and down at my two-yearly scans, sometimes even approaching normal, but I've never gone into osteoporosis and have never had a fracture of any kind. I've never taken bisphosphonates but would start if the reading on my lumbar spine dropped below normal. So far, this has always been much closer to normal than the hip reading.

I don't know how all this ties in with SS. I had my first SS symptoms five years after the menopause, but I think that's fairly normal. On the other hand, I had my first RA flare-up almost 10 years before the menopause. Maybe other women on this forum would have an opinion on whether taking HRT has any effect on the onset or progress of SS.

Oh yes, sweating - that's what we started off talking about, didn't we? I'm guessing the smell of apocrine sweat is tied in with oestrogen levels, and would probably continue if you took HRT, but I don't know. I have friends who have managed to persuade their doctors to let them stay on HRT long-term, but it's not the kind of thing you ask people about in polite conversation, is it?

Thank you so much , I am not in menapose yet , but close to it ??

I was thinking about human growth hormone , they say it's make you feel younger ect .... I am just scared of it

So you in Belgium , nice ... Best chocolates ??

I living in Florida but born in Hungary

Hi Katalin, Personally I wouldn't go near HGH! If you read any scientific sites they all say the same thing: it's dangerous and it doesn't even work for anti-ageing. The GP I went to after the first one kicked me out suggested DHEA, which does have some real anti-ageing benefits. However, on looking up the side-effects - especially masculinisation - I decided that if I was going to take anything to slow the ageing process HRT would be the least worrying.

In the event, I decided to go "cold turkey" and haven't regretted it so far.

Oh yes, chocolate... That was another menopause story. I was absolutely addicted to chocolate when I was young. When I came here, more than 40 years ago, all the many "praline" shops had counters open to the street (and some still do now). The aroma of chocolate was so tempting, I used to have to keep crossing the street to avoid them! But once I came through the menopause I discovered I'd largely lost the taste for chocolate. Coffee too. Metabolic changes, I suppose. I still eat the stuff occasionally but fortunately it's lost its hold on me now. Good thing too - I hate to think what my weight would be now if I'd continued eating it the way I used to!

Well dark chocolate is good for you ??????

Yes I read the bad stuff also , that's the reason I chicken out to take it.

Also I don't take anything for my SS eater , just the tear duck plug and eyes drops and special toothpaste , omega 3 ,

I wonder what you taking to help, and what you see interesting in your resources ... Thanks for talking to me

I think you're wise to chicken out of taking HGH!

As my SS is relatively mild, I don't take any prescription meds other than L-thyroxine for my underactive thyroid. Autoimmune diseases like SS and SLE often have a go at the thyroid gland.

Like you, I take fish liver oil for omega 3. I started taking this 35 years ago when I had my first RA flare-up and have taken it ever since. No idea whether it improves things or not, but I wouldn't want to risk stopping it now. Last year, when I was having a particularly bad time with tendinitis as well as a flare-up of joint pains, I put myself on sea buckthorn oil, which contains omega 7. It seemed to help a bit, but I'm not sure whether it was that or the natural remission process. My SS symptoms have always tended to come and go spontaneously anyway.

I also take two homeopathic remedies during flare-ups of joint and/or tendon pain and find this very helpful - though I have to say I suspect it may be down to placebo effect!

And I use OTC drops for dry eyes. Just occasionally, during periods of very dry, irritated eyes, my doctor has prescribed the kind that come in one-dose ampoules, as these don't contain any antibacterial agents to irritate the eyes further. But most of the time I can get by with the proprietary brands.

And that's about it, apart from the aforementioned calcium, magnesium, vit D3 and vit K2 for my bone density. Oh, and I sometimes take an OTC mucolytic called bromhexine at night, as I tend to suffer from sleep apnoea and my thickened nasal secretions can block my narrow air passages completely.

Other than that, I just try to eat a healthy diet - plenty of green veg, a little fruit every day, oily fish at least once a week etc.

I'm glad to hear you're able to manage without medications so far. People who have very severe SS symptoms sometimes need to take them, but I think they're best avoided if possible.

Thank you , I guess we on the same page with things ??

Exept I don't have RA ( yet ? )

My mom have RA , so I know how bad it is ...

The feminist movement tried to bully women into taking HRT??? Really??? Lily, I had a surgical menopause in '82 and was never once attacked by feminists checking my hormone levels, ready to force-feed me hormones - and feminist moi never did that to any other woman either.

Only folks living in cooler climes than Florida and Texas believe that there's a point at which our sweat becomes odorless. I'm in my 60s and mine still smells, my ex is in his 70s and his still smells, and when one spends time with homeless folks in their 70s even folks with stopped-up noses notice that the sweat of senior citizens definitely has odor. I'm a super-taster/super-sniffer so I will notice more than many folks. But in areas where we don't have seasons other than notes printed on calendar pages, people sweat and that sweat smells. I don't object to the odor tho my poor nose twitches internally when around someone who has been sweating in the same clothes for days and that someone comes indoors. It won't stop me from sitting with that person. Usually the person in that condition is older than I am.

The synchronicity of this sweaty conversation is that this summer I've been thinking of my childhood when very few folks had air conditioned cars and more folks did hard labor in the sun, including picking cotton. Because of my sensitive nose, I categorized adults by the smell of their sweat, with some smelling coppery, some smelling like nickel and others smelling like tin cans or steel.

My ex had a friend who sometimes stayed with us and he made a joke about drooling on a pillow while sleeping. I was so shocked to realize that I had no idea when I'd last done such a thing that I didn't tell him I thought his joke was tacky. I always hated having done such a thing but I'd give a lot to experience it naturally again.