Hepatitis related night sweats

[susan400]

Anybody know about night sweats?   If it's not a hormonal thing (and I don't feel like in my case that it is), what causes these anyway?  Is there any correlation to getting them w/more frequency as your viral load and/or LFT's increase?  The reason I don't feel that it's hormonal is that I've been on HRT, the Estrogen only, for many years due to having an early/young age hysterectomy; and it's been regulated for years, but this night sweat thing seems to be different.  It's not really like flashes per se, but it lasts for most of evening and I don't have it during the daytime.  I'd like to have some input from women or men from anybody that has some knowledge of this.  Thanks

Susan

[Lady Lauri]

I think I did see that and commented about how I am 'fertile, myrtle', 49 and not even in menopause so as per hormone/estrogen I should be good to go,would've had cirhosis by now,lol.

As I said to RGlass in another thread....sometimes it's gotta suck to be a man :}

( I am dog sick and silly tonight!)

LL

[Lady Lauri]

4c.....I'd done that for birth control back than, tried them, stopped. I'm not in menopause yet!  On tx don't know 'where' I'm at! Wasn't before! And got the 'hormone testing' in Dec. to see, came back at 'fertile level', NOT menopause! If tx doesn't push me over the edge, getting pregant at 50 sure would, lol! (won't be happening at 49! End of tx and 50th close together.)

Susan/4c.....that's what I would do, more natural type.
Oh geezzz! Just saw your longer post 4c, gotta go read it now!

LL

[susan400]

I'm not sure if it's a bioidentical or not...  I know that it is plant-based and not equine based.  It is a gel that you rub on your arm.  The pills, I'm told, are harsher on the liver as they get processed by the liver and the things like patches or gels are supposed to bypass the liver, which I'm told are safer.  

I remember seeing that article on the estrogen after menopause being a good thing w/regards to the hepatitis and progression.  Since I had seen that, I printed it out for my gynecol. Dr. so that he could see it and know what I was referring to.  Also, I told him that if he was still concerned about me being on it, he could speak with my gastroenterologist.

Susan

[Forseegood]

hey, you might look into going to a gyno that will give you a bio-identical cream that you only use part of the month, and much less estrogen, etc...then maybe you were originally given back in the bad old 80's...they used to give you enough estrogen back then to knock over a moose if I remember correctly...but of course, I'm no doc and you might have a situation that contradicts the use, etc...but I'd look into it with a doc just in case, they have different dosages, uses, etc now...

[Forseegood]

This is for you LL...from the HIV and Hepatitis dot com site....there have been other similar studies, with similar findings, you can do a search putting in hep c and menopause HRT.....a big Irish one and a French one...some others...

Rates of fibrosis progression in people with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection differ significantly between men in women; in addition, women tend to respond better to interferon-based therapy. It has been suggested that an anti-fibrogenic effect of estrogen may explain this finding, possibly because it inhibits the activity of hepatic stellate cells that produce extracellular matrix, or fibrous tissue.

As reported in the September 26, 2006 online edition of Gut, Brazilian researchers conducted a study to evaluate the severity of chronic hepatitis C in women, and its association with menopause, steatosis (fat accumulation in the liver), and hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

Between November 2003 and October 2004, 251 women with chronic hepatitis C were enrolled. They completed a questionnaire and gave a blood sample on the day of liver biopsy.

Results

    Out of the total of 251 women, 122 women (52%) were past menopause and 65 were receiving HRT.

    Compared to the 190 women (76%) with mild fibrosis (F0-F1), the 61 women (24%) with moderate to severe fibrosis (Metavir score F2-F4):

    - had a longer known duration of HCV infection (greater than 15 years);
    - had a higher body mass index (BMI);
    - were more likely to have steatosis.

    Women with stage F2-F4 fibrosis were more often past menopause (67% vs 47%).

    The probability of stage F2-F4 fibrosis was lower among post-menopausal women using HRT (P = 0.012).

    Steatosis was more frequent and more severe in post-menopausal women.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the authors wrote, "Severity of fibrosis was associated with a longer duration of infection (> 15 years), a higher BMI, advanced steatosis and menopause. [Post-menopausal] women [taking] HRT presented lower stage fibrosis."

They added that, "These results reinforce the hypothesis of a protective role of estrogens in the progression of fibrosis. Steatosis may be implicated in the progression of fibrosis after menopause."

[Lady Lauri]

Hi ya Susan.  
Didn't read thru all of these but I remember a few times in the past 20 yrs. I woke just drenched, major night sweats. It'd be maybe once a year! Now I know why!
See ya' Wed. You can explain/clear up for me :} your new tx plans, etc.

Merrybe, thanks for that info. And how are you? Haven't 'seen' you much lately.

4c..... I missed that one on hormone replacement, would you post or pm it to me? (I'm LOUSY at going thru back post!) I have never been a big fan of HRT, nor the 'pill' type birth control.  Did once for @ 2 weeks in the 80's. Ate @ 45 fudge cycles (sp??) in 3 days, felt horrible and stopped. Me and any drugs don't mix too well! Do know that a struggling liver can cause havoc on many things, including our hormones.

LL

[merryBe]

night only wuld suggest virus, since most viruses get worse at night as our systems try to rest.....you may also have multiple glandular shutdowns as I had, brough on by HCV, and various other chemical exposures and or/auto/head injury. The way to check is to see is your IGF+! level is normal...meaning you pituitary is telling the glands what to do. If not, your thyroid, ovaries, pancrease etc will all get out of whack. Since HCV can affect the pituitary function, get it checked.
MB

[Forseegood]

the only times I've ever had night swears (and I know the difference between night sweats from the hep, and hot flashes, they seem a lot different to me at least, but they might be wrapped up together, in ways I know nothing about) is when I had some flare-ups due to the hep, but I haven't had as bad of flare ups in about 2 years. I had like 3 bad ones, spaced months apart, but never as bad since. I think with me, the flare ups were hitting me worse back then, because my stress level was way from what it is now, but of course God knows, cause I don't.

You do realize that some studies suggest that hormonal replacement (with the woman's individual circumstances in mind) is suggested as something to help with hepatitis C. I've posted those before. I'll be glad to do it again if you'd like to see them. Hope you feel better soon.

[Gladitsnotworse]

I thought I was the only one having these sweats. I had a few and started on premarin a year before treatment in 2004. Then in 2005 I started treatment. The hot flashes were coming up to 5 times an hour during the day even though I still took the premarin (not sure how often at night they came). They stopped after I stopped treatment in Dec 2005 . My GI doc said it was probably just menopause.
I am now on Pegasys as of a Jan 2008. The hot flashes are back again. In the mornings my clothes are also damp when I get up. I would love to know the exact reasoning behind this also.

[mas1961]

It was funny because I had these awful night sweats every single night and my husband could just about time them. Well my Dr. put me on HRT because she thought they must be related to perimenopause. So I faithfully took those pills everyday and I believe the sweats became worse and worse but I took them thinking it would really be bad without them. After HRT for 4 years I found out I have Hep c and one of the symptoms is night sweats. So I decided to change my life and quit doing things that I know are poison to my liver and start taking natural meds that are good for my liver and I also quit the HRT and all of a sudden the night sweats were reduced dramatically and even stopped. I started tx Dec. 27 and I do notice that I  now have the night sweats sometimes but not nearly as bad as they were. I think the night sweats were related to my hep the whole time and I wonder how many women go through this while maybe not ever knowing it might be hep c. Dr.s need to be more informed and not assume it's just menopause all the time.

[sfwandwow]

i use to have night sweats before i found out i had hep-C..now i dont have them and feel alot better and feel more normal since i been on tx.. and iam 2 and 2 when i had liver BX.. i freeze allthe time now, guess cause i lost weight and ctrl of virus..May GOD BLESS YALL  

[susan400]

I can't say if it's related to my past treatments or not, but I've been off of treatment now for 7 mon.  Although, as most of you know, I've never cleared the Hep.  And since I'm still on Estrogen, it's hard for me to think that it would be hormonally related either.  All I can surmise is that it has to be the Hep, but I don't know if that's the right assumation either.  Oh well.....      

Susan

[sfbaygirl]

I went through menopause years before tx. I never had night sweats and took HRT for 3 years before tx. When I did start tx about midway through, I started the sweats, wow was it a wake up. I thought, Geez, I never had them during menopause, why now?  They lasted several months and then disapeared. Off tx I haven't had them. So I sure don't know what the answer is...I did have fevers during tx, usually low like 95 degrees,  the temps started going up as tx progressed. Possibly this was because tx was working.. dunno.  It was a mystery to me!  

Linda

[dointime]

I don't know much but I wonder the same thing.  Here's how it is for me.  I never got the sweats in my life until I stopped HRT (oestrogen and progesterone).  For a while I thought it was menopause related but then I found out I had HepC so now I'm not sure.  I don't know when I picked up the hepC so all I can say for sure is that stopping the HRT was the catalyst for the sweats starting.  

I did notice that when I was on tx the sweats stopped altogether after the first week of meds and started again when I stopped the meds (although I was only clear for about 4 weeks of the whole 8 months.  Did that happen because the meds were keeping the virus down?  Or did the meds have a whole other action on my body to cause the sweats to stop?  I don't know.

My sweats can happen day or night but are more of a nuisance at night.  They last only a few minutes provided I can get all the clothes/covers off me and cool down, otherwise I turn into a river.  A friend suggested that I monitor my temperature and blood pressure throughout the day and when the sweats wake me up.  I found out that there's no fever during the sweat or at any time.  My temperature is always below 37 and can be as low as 35.5 in the night even in the middle of a flash when I am covered in sweat.  The sweat feels cold and clammy on my skin.  My bp is low too, 100 - 108 at all times.  

I don't know what to make of this information.  Maybe the virus has a way of hooking up to the hormonal system and doing the same as the menopause does, except it happens to men as well.  Oh dear, time to get stuck into the biology books again.  We'll all be able to take masters degrees in medicine by the time we're finished.  

dointime


  

            

[alagirl]

Glad I'm not the only one this happens to.  The thing I hate is, you'll get the night sweats, then wake up freezing to death because its cold in the room and your sheets are wet.  I too tend to think it may have something to do with the off and on fevers of treatment because I do tend to run fevers off and on.

I thought before maybe it was my lexapro because I hadn't been as compliant as I should have been (I'd skip a couple days at a time) but I've been perfect with it for a while now so I can only think its the treatment.  I'm definitely putting out plenty of female hormone from my one little ovary (they checked) so it can't be menopause (which doesn't come til much later in my family anyway).

[goldenrule]

i was fortunate to have caught hep early, so my liver functions were all in normal range pre-treatment. however aftr getting on the meds i began having night sweats.. i continued to have them after finishing treatmetn for some time, but now have not had a problem with that.. I believe it is treatment related

[cigaso]

Yes, my dr told me that one of the symptoms of HCV are night sweats.
I usually wear some kind of t-shirt. My collar would be soaking wet in the morning. I still occasionaly get them, but I've been on tx the last 9 months with 6 months left (hopefully).

[Harry Potter]

I too suffer them from time to time; my dr. told me you sweat as your fever comes down after spiking, as a result of your immune system trying to fight off the virus.  My most virulent sweats were a few weeks after when I consider I became infected; I had 10 days (or so) in a row of drenching, drenching night sweats, in the middle of winter last year, with the heat off & very thin pajamas on.  From what I gather, there is no correlation between sweats & spiking LFT's and/or viral load.  I've only had one PCR test, right after my 10-day run of the sweats, and my viral load was 4,057.  Also, after about 8 tests for my ALT/AST, my highest readings were 17 & 16 (respectively) & I continue to sweat now, much less often, and my last ALT reading was 14.  So, there shouldn't be a connection between sweating & rising LFT levels.  One thing I've found, going to bed on an empty, or as near as you can empty, stomach, seems to help somewhat!