One of my medical mysteries solved. [View all]

[BlueKota]

Four years ago I noticed I started to sweat profusely in the winter after going outside, even after limited activity and length of time. I told my primary care at a regular check up. He said it was probably hormonal, and ask my gynecologist, who I had my annual with a week later.

She had some words about male doctors who blame everything on women's hormones, then said you're ten years into menopause so that's not it. She consulted with her husband also an MD after getting my permission. He told her to refer me to an endocrinologist. The endocrinologist thought maybe it was Cushings. It wasn't. They wanted to run a bunch of studies on me but I said never mind. I was thinking why bother, they have all been wrong so far.

Well for awhile I actually didn't have it happening, only rarely. Cue this year and the frigid temperatures. I have been regularly soaking through two outfits a day. So when my 80 year old cousin called, and asked me how I was handling the cold, I told her about the sweating. She said, "me too, and when I went to my kidney specialist (one of hers was damaged by bipolar medicication), I was suffering a bout." She said she apologized to the doctor and said, "I don't know why I am sweating so much." He replied, "I do! It's your Raynauds disease. "

I was skeptical, but I googled, and sure enough it is a a confirmed symptom. The podiatrist who cuts my nails and checks my toes because of the Raynauds said she didn't know it caused the sweating either. She thought about it, and then replied, "it makes sense though. Your extremities are probably signaling they are cold and need help warming up so your body releases extra cortisol which overheats the rest of your system."

Oh well at least now we know what it is. A lot of us on my Mom's side of the family have Raynauds.