How can I sweat less?

Mark Whiteley, consultant vascular surgeon, Whiteley Clinic, Guildford, replies: Excessive sweating, or hyperhidrosis, is a common complaint. There are an increasing number of treatments available and you need to ascertain whether there is a simple cause for the sweating - over-drinking, dressing inappropriately etc, or whether there is an underlying medical problem - such as an overactive thyroid gland.
In these cases treatments are aimed at the underlying cause, but if these are excluded and excessive sweating persists, there are treatments that target the area where excess sweating occurs. The easiest to treat is excessive under arm (or axillary) sweating. If strong anti-perspirants fail, injections of botulinum toxin into the axillary skin can stop sweating for four to nine months after the first injection and six to 12 months after every subsequent injection.
If the hands or face are the sites of excessive sweating, an operation called endoscopic transthoracic sympathectomy (ETS) can be performed which stops hand sweating in 99 per cent of people and facial sweating in 70 per cent. However, this is a surgical operation and patients must be aware of the risks. For more information check out www.sweating.co.uk.