Night Sweats after mastectomy

Cats, I am 57 and until my bilateral mx and recon (also prophy) last July, I never had a single hot flash, nary a mood swing (even DH says so), and if I had not had endometrial ablation a few years ago to end overzealous bleeding, I would truly not have known I'd gone through menopause. No HRT, ever. 

After the bmx, well, different story on the sweats!  Not only did I have about three months of unexpected and serious night sweats, just in general I find that I sweat more while exercising.  Night sweats are much better now, but still I awaken hot when I never did before. 

My theory is that in my bmx and recon (diep) I lost a lot of body fat; have been told before that even post meno, body fat releases small amounts of estrogen for a long time.  Goodbye and good riddance to both fat and estrogen, but maybe the sudden loss of my estrogen-producing fat turned on the sweat-switch, i.e. gave me meno symptoms I'd not had to deal with before.  DH agrees that for whatever lucky reason, my disposition has been unaffected (thank goodness!).

Now, I was sorta hopin' that this sweating business, especially during my workouts, also signaled a speedier metabolism or some other miraculous lose-weight benefits. Hasn't worked out that way.  Oh well, we can dream anyway, right?

Carol

I am 45 and had double mastectomy, sentinal lymph node removal on Jan 23 2012 and although period slowing down I have had little trouble with night swears and hot flashes prior to surgery. Since surgery I wake up sweating several times a night and don't keep well. Also, been having hot flashes during day. Just got over the counter Remifemin, which is herbal black cohosh. Recommended by ob/gyn and found article on breast cancer.org site that said being studied as believe Remifemin may actually reduce risk of cancer. Mfg in Germany and they control herbals like our FDA does with RX here. Just started taking, but think it is helping. Not sure WHY mastectomy would jump start menopause symptoms, but sure seems to be the case. I understand why chemo or Tamoxifen would as inhibits estrogen. Any others suffering from the sudden insomnia and night sweats since surgery?

MX on 2-16,soaking wet every night and often during the day.  I too had thought night sweats had past age 57.  Really again

I called my surgeons nurse from Dana Farber today and she said that YES they do have women complain of menopause symptoms of night sweats and hot flashes after mastectomy. Doesn't change anything, but would have been nice to know what to expect up front.

I went through a really early Menopause started at 38 all done by 45. I didn't take HRT. I am now 60 and have been having hot flashes, day and night since my UMX, 15 months ago. They aren't really bad ones, but they are certainly noticeable.

I figured it may have been because of the loss of that "D" cup of fat cells! LOL

I assumed my hot flushes (mostly at night) were due to letrozole but now I'm wondering about the effect of mastectomy too. I had a mastectomy in July last year and I will be having a prophylactic mastectomy soon and am wondering will this make it worse?

I had a bilateral mascetomy about 4 weeks ago, had hot flashes ever since I left hospital. Can’t sleep at night, I am 44. They put me on Zoloft, which made it worse!!! I am off of everything now. But hot flashes still continue, need advice on how to handle hot flashes. I am not on any tamoxifen either. I do t really sweat profusely, just upper body gets a burst of hot, mostly my back. Really don’t want to take any more “meds”

Dear lbsires,

Welcome to the community. We are sorry for what brings you here but so glad that you reached out to our members. This particular topic has not seen recent activity. You might consider sending a private message to the member who shared your symptoms and/or start a whole new topic which might offer more visibility. Let us know how we can be of help.

The Mod