Do YOU suffer from night sweats? Don’t blame the menopause just yet

The GP told Wendy Leigh that the cause of her constant heavy night sweats was obvious.

As a woman in her mid-40s, she was simply going through what he coyly called ‘the change’.

But while night sweats are a common symptom of both the menopause and the perimenopause — the run-up to it, during which time the ovaries gradually reduce their production of the hormone oestrogen — Wendy was experiencing them far more often than would be expected.

As Wendy, now 51, recalls: ‘I was also having what felt like constant abdominal cramps and generally felt unwell.

As a woman in her mid-40s, Wendy thought her night sweats meant she  was simply going through what he coyly called ‘the change’ (stock image) 

‘Yet when I went to see my doctor and told him all this, I was told that I was reaching that time in life.’

The GP suggested Wendy’s symptoms, which began in 2009, would improve. 

Yet they persisted, and over the next two years Wendy returned to her GP practice several times, seeing three different GPs to get to the root of the problem.

Each time she complained — not only about the night sweats that happened every couple of weeks, but also of lower back and abdominal pain. 

Yet every time they dismissed her as being menopausal.

‘I didn’t think it was the menopause since I had regular periods,’ says Wendy. 

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‘And researching my symptoms on the internet, it didn’t seem that they fitted the menopause, save for the night sweats.’

Wendy, a sales manager from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, persisted and was eventually offered various tests including one to check her hormone levels, a cervical smear and blood tests. But all came back normal.

She was referred to a gynaecologist who, in turn, referred her to a haematologist. 

This specialist suspected that Wendy’s symptoms, far from pointing towards the menopause, had a more serious cause — and sent her for a CT scan.

And finally — in December 2011 — this revealed that, in fact, Wendy had Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that develops in the vessels and glands that form the lymphatic system.

In addition to the night sweats, Was having what felt like constant abdominal cramps and she generally felt really unwell

One of the most common symptoms is night sweats — but while menopausal sweats tend to occur around the time of a woman’s period, lymphoma sweats can occur at any time of the month and are often described as a ‘drenching’, leaving the bedclothes soaking wet.

When the scan picked up enlarged lymph nodes — swellings within the lymphatic system — attached to the bowel, Wendy, who is divorced with two adult children, had mixed feelings.

‘Part of me was horrified at hearing that I had cancer,’ she says.

‘Yet there was some relief, too. I knew I wasn’t going mad. I hadn’t been in denial about going through the menopause. There really was something wrong with me.’

It’s estimated that 13 million women in the UK are peri or menopausal — around a third of the adult female population.

Around 70 per cent experience a number of symptoms which include night sweats, vaginal dryness, hot flushes, weight gain, memory loss, low libido and low mood.

These can last for months or even years before the body finally stops ovulating — producing a monthly egg — and periods stop for good. 

Around 70 per cent of menopausal women experience a number of symptoms which include night sweats, vaginal dryness, hot flushes, weight gain, memory loss, low libido and low mood 

The average age for the menopause — defined officially as after a woman has her last period — is 51.

Yet there are concerns that doctors may be too quick to label women in their mid to late-40s as menopausal when their symptoms are due to another underlying health condition.

Last month, for example, a study of 2,000 bowel cancer patients by University College London and Cancer Research UK found women were far more likely than men to have tumours picked up in AE because symptoms were confused by doctors — and women themselves — with menopause symptoms.

Ovarian cancer, an overactive thyroid gland and even depression can also be misdiagnosed as the menopause. 

‘It’s a common clinical situation for an overactive thyroid to be confused as the menopause if a woman is getting hot flushes,’ explains Dr Mark Vanderpump, a consultant endocrinologist at the Physicians’ Clinic in London. 

The difference, he says, is that menopausal hot flushes tend to be sudden and intermittent, whereas an overactive thyroid leads to a more chronic ‘heat intolerance’ and sweating.

A common symptom of lymphoma is night sweats, but while menopausal sweats tend to occur around the time of a woman’s period, lymphoma sweats can occur at any time of the month

‘All it takes is a simple blood test by your GP to look at hormone levels. This should decide whether or not it’s the menopause or something else.’

There is also a crossover between menopausal symptoms and those of depression (perhaps because of mood swings and loss of libido) and even early onset dementia.

Both the menopause and dementia can lead to memory loss and so-called ‘brain fog’ — a feeling of slight confusion — meaning that the conditions get confused for each other.

‘We have heard about some cases where early signs of dementia have been dismissed as the menopause,’ says George McNamara, head of policy at the Alzheimer’s Society.

However, it should be stressed that the vast majority of women in their 40s and 50s experiencing sweats or changes in their mood, for example, are likely to do so because they are menopausal, says Dr Jenni Byrom, a consultant gynaecologist at the Birmingham Women’s Hospital.

‘However, it is also important for doctors to keep an open mind and consider other issues, too,’ she says.

There is also a crossover between menopausal symptoms and those of depression (perhaps because of mood swings and loss of libido) and even early onset dementia

The problem is that GPs have less than ten minutes to decide whether a woman is going through the menopause or suffering a life-threatening illness, adds Dr Louise Newson, a Midlands GP who runs a menopause clinic at the Spire Parkway Hospital in Solihull, Warwickshire.

‘But if a woman has got symptoms she is really worried about, say heavy night sweats or unexplained weight loss, she should go back to her GP within three weeks, and if she is not satisfied with the answer to ask for a two-week referral to a specialist. 

If she is really worried she should go to Casualty.

‘The upshot is to press for further investigation.’

Dr Newson says women themselves need to be less embarrassed about questioning their diagnosis.

‘Women can dismiss symptoms sometimes; they think it is likely to be the menopause because they are at that life stage,’ she says.

But Dr Newson says there also needs to be an improvement in the amount of training GPs receive about both the symptoms and treatment of the menopause. 

SURPRISING SIGNS OF THE MENOPAUSE 

Symptoms such as hot flushes, fatigue and a loss of libido are common in the lead-up to the menopause. 

Symptoms such as hot flushes, fatigue and a loss of libido are common in the lead-up to the menopause 

But the fluc-tuation in hormones can also cause a range of lesser-known problems, such as:

• Indigestion

• Loss of flexibility — yoga exercises might suddenly seem harder

• Legs that feel heavy and ache

• Itchy skin

• Receding gums

• Thinner-feeling hair and skin

• Changed sense of taste and smell

• Dizziness and loss of balance.

Currently, the amount of training they get is poor, she says.

‘Many doctors simply don’t make it a priority to look more extensively into the subject,’ she adds. ‘And that needs to change.’

Wendy, meanwhile, is currently in remission, but has been told the cancer is likely to return and she will need treatment again.

‘When I was diagnosed I was really ill,’ she says. ‘The cancer had gone from my lymph nodes into my bone marrow because diagnosis had been delayed.

‘If it had been left for much longer, I simply wouldn’t be here now.’

Following her diagnosis, Wendy had six months of chemotherapy, followed by a two monthly ‘maintenance’ dose of the treatment which finished in 2014.

‘The irony is that the chemotherapy actually did put me into menopause,’ she says.

‘I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what we have been through, which is why I would implore any woman to push for answers if she is not satisfied with her diagnosis of “menopause”.

‘I knew I wasn’t well, that something wasn’t right, even though three different GPs told me it was the menopause.

‘I’m glad I pushed until I finally got an answer.

‘I don’t even want to think of how this could have ended up.’

Bloodwise.org.uk