Wanted to mention that I am on pyridostigmine 60mg up to 4 times a day IF needed, it doesn't seem to be helping much...but from everyone that post here, I have gathered that it takes quite some time for the medications to actually start improving things that are wrong.

From my understanding mestinon starts working within an hour depending on how you take it (pill, chew the pill or liquid) or if you take it with a meal or just a couple of bites. Imuran took about six weeks to work. Prednisone took two weeks to work.

I have never had severe sweats like you described. Maybe someone here will be along who can relate. I can not tolerate the heat. I sip ice water to keep me cool while the air conditioner is cooling down. I stay out if the heat if I can. There are cooling vests and other products that can help. I have simply put ice cubes in Baggie and put them on my pressure points to keep me from getting over heated. Some people with MG say that they melt in the heat. A call to your doctor might be in order. Good luck!

Hi Tera. I'm pretty sure the pyridostigmine should start helping fairly quickly, if it works for you. I believe it's the other meds we use that take some time, like the prednisone and the immunosuppressants.

As to the over-heating, I know that temperature extremes are not our friends, especially heat, but I don't recall too many members talking about their MG leading to extreme sweating and waking up with wet sheets.

I know autoimmune diseases may come in groups, so you could have something else going on. I'm sure others will chime in.

Take Care! Chris.

One of the side effects of pyridostigmine (mestinon) is excessive sweating, which with me gave me the feeling of being overheated. When I took large doses -- to try to accomplish something physical, I always carried a towel and extra shirt in the car so I could change -- as just about any exertion would make me sweat profusely.

If you want to test this yourself, go without mestinon and see what happens. Mestinon kicks in within a half hour and kicks out in about 3-4 hours (the time release is different), so it either works almost immediately or not at all. I took 90mg a time every 3-4 hours when I needed to do something physical and less when I was taking it easy.

Eventually prednisone began working and I quit mestinon completely and my sweats disappeared completely, just a dripping memory! I don't really remember feeling overheated so much as dripping with sweat, so maybe your symptoms are something different.

If our MG is progressing, it does get to a point where we have so many destroyed receptors mestinon does not help much anymore and we need something that stops the immune system from manufacturing the attack antibodies to let receptors grow back. Prednisone, IVIG, cellcept, imuran, rituxan, etc

Good Luck

Perhaps it was with the prednisone that I had heard about, the Pyridostigmine isn't working very well for me, but they left it up to me to decide how many a day was going to work and I had and have no idea as to what I was suppose to get from it and have only been taking two a day so perhaps I should go ahead and increase my dose to 3 and maybe just go ahead and do the four a day???? thanks for your responses, I really do appreciate the comments and suggestions.

You are not alone. I too sweat a lot. My hair gets dripping wet with as little activity as moving my arms around at my desk. I also get over heated and need to use a fan to cool down. I've got a little portable one in my purse and a small on one my desk which I use often. I got them on Amazon.
I think it's the Mestinon. I take 60mg 3-4 times a day, which helps with the MG symptoms. If you aren't getting symptom relief, you might drop the Mestinon and see if the sweating stops. I also take Prednosone, but I think it's the
Hope this helps! You are the first person I've heard from who also sweats, so your post helped me a LOT!! Just nice to know there is someone else out there....

thank you nanegg, it does help to know someone also has the same as I, just sorry we have to go through it. I have been sweating so long now that I just know I will be taking a shower 2-3 times a day just to wash the salt from my skin. Then too went to the doctor because I was struggling with my breathing and I hadn't slept do to a horrible cough and found out I now have pneumonia, which with the sweating I was already doing has only intensified do to the fever I am running. She put me on a very strong antibiotic and s steroid to help with the inflammation in my lungs...I swear if it isn't one thing it is another for me these days.
Again thank you for responding and God Bless!

Higher doses of mestinon make me sweat profusely, but instead of being hot, the sweat cools me off and makes me cold.
I only take 30 mg per dose so that I don't have all the sweating.
I also take Dap and that causes more cooling.

Sounds like maybe your infection maybe caused more sweating than usual.

Hi Tera,

I too have the same problem you do. We are the same age group. I will wake up in the middle of the night drenched. I take clothes off and then I start freezing and have to dress again. I am miserable and tired because this wakes me up. Spoke to a gyne and she said that some postmenopausal women can still have postmenopausal nightsweats. Great! Thought I had been there and done that. I take a lot of mestinon but nothing ever happens during the day so we ruled that out. I too am hypothyroid. If you find a solution I'll be waiting. Best of luck to both of us- sisters in sweat.

I have a similar problem and since I am a 67 yo man it's not post menopausal. I think it is the combination of mestinon(up to 5x per day) and 20mg of prednisone daily.

Tera,
It seems there are several of us with the same symptom. I have a similar problem with sweating, both night sweats that leave me and the sheets drenched and day sweats where water falls from my hair in large drops so that it looks like I have been out in the rain.

I am a 68 yo female on 120mg of mestinon three times a day, 20mg of prednisone every other day, and 22.5mg methotrexate once a week. I havent figured out the cause of the sweats nor have I mentioned them to my doctor. Ive assumed its a manifestation of my overall weakness or a side effect of the medication.

Interesting! I wonder what other oddities we MGers have in common.

Barbara

I'm 67 so menopause is a distant memory, but I do remember I sailed through it with no problems and no night sweats. Now with MG, I have night and day sweats. During the day my entire head gets wet and sweat drips down the back of my neck. When I first lie down at night I immediately feel overheated even though the room is cool. During the night I am often in and out of the sheets from getting too hot, too cold, too hot, too cold, etc. I often wake up sweaty and the side of my face is wet from drooling. Yuck! But I can't complain because all things considered my life is good and I am grateful for all the good in it. I don't know what causes the sweating, but I do know it only started after MG dx. The drooling is caused by extra saliva production, a side effect of Mestinon. So I can't tell you a cause or a remedy for the sweating, but I can tell you that you are not alone and I hope it gets better.

I also have the sweating and the drooling. My sweating is so bad after I shower that I feel like I need another shower. I also have developed a different smell to my sweat, almost a strong vinegar smell. My neurologist suggested it could be the mestinon and also referred me to a specialist for sweating, I'm not able to see him until August. I will let you know the results after that appointment. I too think that part of it is overall weakness and the amount of work my body has to do to function.