I am trying to figure out why I break out into intense sweats with minimal activity, like taking a walk. I wake up soaking wet many nights. I work in retail and simply standing for long periods of time behind the cash register I'll break into sweats like I've been lifting weights or something. I don't know if anxiety can cause that. I find my heart rate is sometimes over 100 when I haven't been exerting myself in any way. I have seen my primary doc and had my thyroid and my sugars checked and all normal. I have endometriosis and PCOS and am only 28 so I don't think its menopause which is what most people think of first when I say I'm burning up and sweat uncontrollably. I've ruled out other medicines I take because this has been happening since before I started them. I think it may have been going on since I started Cymbalta 2 years ago. Anyone else experience this or have any opinions about what might be going on? After taking a shower I usually can't stop sweating long enough to put my clothes on or makeup without have to continually towel off. Worries me...
Has anyone experienced intense sweating while taking Cymbalta?
Question posted by PurpleButterfies on 23 Dec 2011
Last updated on 14 June 2024 by Seniorfemale
Thank you everyone for your responses... please continue to respond if you have anything else to say! I appreciate it. :)
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44 Answers
Can you ask your doctor to decrease your dose a little? It may help. I, too, sweat a lot on the med but it got milder when I decreased to 20mg. Good luck!
"Dermatologic
Common (1% to 10% of users): Hyperhidrosis/increased sweating
Uncommon (0.1% to 1% of users): Cold sweat, night sweats,"
Talk to your doctor. A slight dosage decrease might be helpful. Medication can be prescribed to control the sweating.
I have experienced such extreme sweating that it has altered my entire life. I will be changing this medication. I cannot go a minute of my day without profound sweating and like you cannot even get dressed.
"Dermatologic
Common (1% to 10% of users): Hyperhidrosis/increased sweating"
Yes, talk to your doctors... this condition can easily be managed in many cases.
I want to thank everyone for the information I've read here. I started Cymbalta about a month and a half ago as an antidepressant and painkiller. I recently noticed my profuse sweating and thought it resulted from the Cymbalta. Now I feel more confident talking to my doctor about what I'm experiencing and what I can do to manage it.
"Common (1% to 10% of users): Hyperhidrosis/increased sweating"
Talk to your doctors! There are medications that can minimize or eliminate this side effect... and some may be available OTC.
It is definitely the Cymbalta. I started on Cymbalta for the first time 2 years ago
And after about a month of taking started excessively sweating to
The point it was life changing. I didn’t want to leave the air and do any type of activity due to embarrassing sweating. After stopping Cymbalta completely the sweating stopped. Now 2 years later doctor
Decided to put me back on Cymbalta to help
With my neuorathapy and fibromyalgia. Again about 1 month in and the excessive sweating started again. I decided to stop taking Cymbalta because weighing the options I would rather be in pain than sweating like crazy. Stopped Cymbalta for 2 days and pain was excruciating. I happen to have an appt with my dermatologist that seen how I was sweating. I told him I couldn’t deal with the sweating any longer but unfortunately the Cymbalta did help me with my pain. He told me about a medicine that stops sweating called Robinul. I just started taking today.
He said the only bad part is if you are outside working in the heat to make sure you drink lots of water because due to not sweating you can have a heat stroke. Now if the Cymbalta is not helping you with pain or such I would just get the doctor to change you to another type of antidepressant. However if the Cymbalta is helping you with pain have your doctor try you in the Robinul. I’m going to give it about 2 weeks to see if it helps if not I will be stopping the Cymbalta because the sweating is unbearable.
Oh my goodness YES! I am not taking Cymbalta anymore now! I was sitting down in an air conditioned house playing Legos with my son and I realized I was dripping wet with sweat! I have been having so many other scary side effects, hence the reason I cannot take Cymbalta anymore. I currently feel as if a gorilla is gripping my heart, my head is being bombed by Nazi Stormtroopers, I CANNOT focus my eyes AT ALL(I have an Autistic son who needs to be driven to school and therapies!), my fingers are ZAPPING with INTENSE ELECTRIC PAIN so I can't stop dropping things and I feel like I could zap my enemies, INSOMNIA is crazy beyond belief (I have manic depression and this NOTHING like a manic episode!). I can go on, but from what I have read online I realize it is the Cymbalta so I am not going to be taking it anymore.
I am in excruciating pain beyond belief where prior to Cymbalta I had bad pain- I can no longer cook, drive, shop, do household chores or lift my coffee cup! I can't wait until this clears my system! I stopped talking it last night and I have woken up early to terrors, chest pain, head pain like no other(I do suffer migraine headaches), and I need to get my youngest son to school! I wish you the best of luck in finding what works for you! Do your research online so you can at least be informed and know what's going on with your body. And ALWAYS TRUST YOUR GUT!
I'm glad to see I am certainly not the only one sweating heavily because of Cymbalta. Just drinking tea, I start sweating. Imagine working out. I have to wear a head band and I still sweat heavily. After my work out, I twist it and sweat pours out heavily like from a tap. I have been on Cymbalta for about 4 years and have been sweating buckets. I am trying to find another antidepressant that does not make me sweat like this. I'm just so tired of the side effects of antidepressants!
I cannot believe that I'm seeing this question. I've been on Cymbalta 60mg + 30mg = 90 mg per day for over 5 years. Yes, I experience severe, severe sweating from Cymbalta. Whilst I'm on many other meds which cause sweating, I believe Cymbalta takes the cake. Cymbalta was prescribed for me for fibromyalgia but I'm currently weaning off because of the sweating
I've been on cymbalta for 3 years. After trying so many different things, it was the first medication that helped with my pain and depression. But the sweating! Oh the sweating.
Now my pain is coming back. My dr thinks my body has built up a tolerance to the cymbalta so she is weaning me off of it as of today. I say, so long sweaty dripping hair.
I can't take opioids any more because they make me so nauseous. I was diagnosed with fibro 14 years ago. (Fought that diagnosis for years since I didn't really understand it and only heard negative things about the diagnosing. Then it kicked my butt)
Now I have rheumatoid and osteoarthritis on top of that.
Hip replacement, bursitis and occasional gout, the pain really stacks up.
But I've lived with pain so long that I tolerate it most of the time. I'll just be glad to get rid of the sweats.
Hope you find something that helps you.
Hi PurpleButterflies. Yes I had excessive sweating from taking Cymbalta (60 mg). I am in the group Cymbalta Hurts Worse on Facebook and the advice they gave me about tapering off was the bead counting process and I am down to 7.5 mg. Hundreds of people have been able to get off this medication by doing it this way and the ‘withdrawal’ symptoms are minimal. Doing it this way you don’t find yourself being put on another medication and then having to taper off that one too. As long as the beads are put back in a capsule before taking them there is no danger of doing it this way. Almost every horrible side effect is gone now and I am working my way back to my healthy life that I had before Cymbalta. I will never take another medication like Cymbalta again. Take care and I wish you the best. Cindy
Yes!!! It was awful! And, I already went through the change! At yoga I was the only one with a towel! And, I don't usually sweat! Night sweats were bad, too, and I didn't experience that while going through menopause. And, the weight gain was awful. I asked my doctor to please take me off cymbalta. I had to do a "prozac bridge" to wean me. You cannot just stop taking the meds. Talk to your doctor. There is also a Facebook site called "Cymbalta Hurts Worse". They had a lot of info, but remember to take some info with a grain of salt. For example, to go off the med many people actually open up the capsules and count beads and take fewer and fewer beads each week. I talked to my doctor about that and he came up with the Prozac bridge (which many in the FB group warn you about), but it worked for me. Good luck! I think you are too young to be going through menopause, but I know that it can happen.
However, if the sweating started around the time you started taking Cymbalta, then my guess would be that C is the culprit. Definitely talk to your doctor and if you are not happy with what you hear, try to find another doctor. They don't always listen well. Again, good luck!
Oh my goodness YES! I am SO relieved to read that I'm not alone in this and/or crazy (Not that I'm happy you're suffering with this!) Initially, I was really worried that something was very wrong with me so I had full labs and a physical and pap done and all was well. After that it dawned on me thay the Cymbalta must be the culprit. Aside from the profuse sweating, this medication works very well for me, so I'm not sure what to do! To someone who's never had to deal with sweating of this magnitude, it seems like a silly problem but it is very uncomfortable and embarrassing! Have you found a solution or anything that helps?
Hello PurpleButterfies,
I've been on Cymbalta for 6 years and I have the same problem. I'm well into my sixties and I had a total hysterectomy 25 years ago. Since I started Cymbalta 6 years ago the severe sweating started. I am now being weaned off 30mg at a time. I was on Cymbalta for fibromyalgia and I'd rather put up with the pain then this severe sweating.
Hello PB. I chose to open an account on this useful site on the basis of reading your question which I relate to 100%. I was prescribed 60 mg Cymbalta in 2010 after severe insomnia, anxiety and asscociated struggles. Within a week I felt the benefits, which I'd not want to lose, and I felt the most severe, daily sweating I've ever had. I've always been a very heavy sweater so it is now unbearable, no matter the weather or stressful situations. It is a problem of the SSRI class I think, although Cymbalta seems the worst for this side effect. I used to take tricyclics ( a more sedating type ) and it wasn't as bad but they didn't help my root problems. So I'm stuck and sympathise with yours and everyone else. Sitting down, eating hot meals, drinking ice cold water, is no different to when I walk in 30c, humid weather - I can break out in a hot sweat and be soaked in 15 minutes.
As for interviews, having to think fast, house chores and anxious moments - they are a living hell, every day of the year. Nobody wants to employ you if you are dripping sweat from your head and looking ingenuine - if you explain it or ask for a tissue it's been taken as a weakness or serious underlying health condition. Eating in restaurants is so embarrassing I've left the table and friends, making an excuse, the embarrassment is so bad as I am sweating into my food practically. And with effects like this it probably is. I go through several towels each day, two shirts which I can wring the sweat from and bathe twice to try and contain it because of this drug. I'm torn 50/50 whether to continue it.
I'm male, 44, healthy other than bad nerves and live in the UK. There is a long heatwave at present and it is hell. Daily life and routine necessities are almost impossible. Any advice and other ideas to balance Cymbalta's effects would be appreciated.
M.
Related topics
cymbalta, depression, hyperhidrosis, anxiety
Further information
- Cymbalta uses and safety info
- Cymbalta prescribing info & package insert (for Health Professionals)
- Side effects of Cymbalta (detailed)
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