Expert Spotlight

Dr Dennis McCurdy
Cosmetic Physician

Excessive sweating

While sweating is the body’s way of regulating its temperature, some people may sweat four or five times more than is considered normal. If you are one of them, know that you are not alone and the condition is treatable.

“Excessive sweating or hyperhidrosis affects about three percent of the population,” said Dr Dennis McCurdy.

There are two types of hyperhidrosis. The more common type, primary hyperhidrosis, often begins in childhood, whereas secondary hyperhidrosis is caused by a medical condition or a side effect of a medication. Another key difference is that unlike people with primary hyperhidrosis, people with secondary hyperhidrosis usually experience excessive sweating while sleeping.

The most common areas of excessive sweating are the underarms, hands and feet. According to Dr McCurdy, people with excessive underarm sweating are often embarrassed by their condition, especially if it results in body odour or underarm sweat stains.

“They often resort to wearing black tops to try to hide sweat stains,” he said.

Treatments for excessive underarm sweating

“There are many ways of treating excessive underarm sweating due to primary hyperhidrosis. Most patients who see a doctor for excessive sweating would usually have already tried antiperspirants,” said Dr McCurdy.

Surgical options include cutting the nerves that cause sweating or scraping out the sweat glands. However, these procedures run the risk of complications such as compensatory sweating in other areas of the body. Some oral medications can reduce sweating but are often not used due to side effects, such as dry mouth and constipation.

A successful non-surgical treatment for excessive underarm sweating is the use of injections in the underarm area. The injected substance is the same as that used to treat facial wrinkles. By blocking the nerves of sweat glands, these injections can reduce sweating by more than 50%.

What injection treatment involves

The clinician first stains the patient’s underarm to determine the area where most of the sweating occurs. This enables the clinician to inject into the area where the injections will have the most effect.

“The procedure takes less than half an hour and does not tend to be too painful, although an anaesthetic cream may be used,” Dr McCurdy said.

Patients typically start to experience a reduction in sweating in about 10–14 days. The treatment effects usually last for over 6 months. Most of Dr McCurdy’s patients return yearly for re-treatment.