Night sweats

Hi everyone, I've been occasionally browsing this forum for a few days now and I just decided to make an account. Just some quick background on myself: I'm a 25 year old male, and I was diagnosed with Crohn's about a year ago. It started with consistent drops of blood in my stool which, of course, was diagnosed at hemorrhoids and I went through all of the possible treatments for that. After none of the treatments worked they sent me in for a colonoscopy and low and behold, I have Crohn's disease. At this point I've gone through many medications and either they haven't worked or I've had a bad reaction to them. I'm currently on Entocort, which is my doctor's last ditch effort to medicate me before moving on to Remicade (and if that doesn't work he is apparently sending me to the Mayo Clinic).

So anyway, my question to the community is: Does anyone experience night sweats? For me they started in early January, and they came with about a month long bout with nightly low-grade fevers. I went to my general physician for the fevers and I was treated with an antibiotic and the fevers disappeared, but the night sweats remain. Every night I wake up soaked in sweat and it doesn't seem to make a difference what I wear to bed or how few blankets I use. I was also recently diagnosed as anemic and low on iron, and for that I'm not taking an iron supplement but still no change in the sweats.

Thanks for reading and any responses are appreciated.

Welcome to the forum.

I have awful night sweats.  I have for years.  I was diagnosed 3 years ago, when I was 29 years old.  Hardly a night goes by that I don't wake up completely drenched.  I never had a problem with this before Crohn's.  Usually the sweats come with the chills for me.  Strange, huh?  I've never achieved remission but I would imagine this would be something that would go away once you're in remission.

I have night sweats several days a mo.....like 5-10. I thought it was my hormones, however my GYN ran hormone tests to see if I was starting menopause early due to the Crohns and my levels are well within the normal range. I was very happy to hear that considering I am only 36 and have come to accept them as part of either my meds or just the disorder.

I tend to get chills during the day, and sweats during the night, so you're definitely not alone!

Thanks for all of the responses. I do get the chills during the day and then sometimes at night as I'm going to bed and then I'll wake up covered in sweat. Its comforting to know that I'm not alone.

Veronica, I have tried Azathioprine and it strongly disagreed with my body. I haven't tried Humira or Cimzia, but I'll ask my doctor about those before he puts me on Remicade. I have a good feeling about the Entocort though, so hopefully I won't have to worry about it.

Jtaylor - I'm just curious, are your chills during the day accompanied by pain? I notice that usually my chills are when I have a particularly strong wave of pain.

I get night sweats pretty often, I have to sleep on a towel to absorb the sweat, then when it gets too wet I just switch towels (saves changing sheets or sleeping in a puddle). It never occurred to me that this was related to Crohn's. Wow, there are so many aspects to this disease other than just the obvious.

I too didn't realize this was part of the package! I get the sweats at night and the chills in the waking hours sometimes. Love the towel idea! I learn so much from reading here.

Valerie: My chills usually come after a particularly rough visit to the bathroom.

Vin: Interesting that you say that. When I was getting fevers for a month straight they would always start in the early evening and then go away sometime in the night. I haven't been on pred for a long time though and when I was I only took it for a few days so I don't think it was related.

I have no idea why I've never tried sleeping on a towel. I'll try that out tonight.

I get night sweats as well, I think more from the Pred than anything else. I sleep in a top that will absorb the sweat and if I wake up I just make sure I have another tshirt to hand to change into.

Wow jtaylor, your story sounds very similar to mine but I didn't have droplets or any kind of blood, I had/have perianal crohn's skin tags that were misDX as being hemmies and had them banded while flaring which was a big no no, then after that surgery my CD really hit me hard internally, although just before that surgery I was starting to notice multiple daily BM's (and I was always a one a dayer) but they were still formed/normal looking, the D came after the surgery, that's when the CD hit me internally and then lots of mucus and blood followed about a yr after that.

I too am either allergic or non responsive to traditional oral RX used to treat CD. I don't have issues with the night sweats though at least not in the way you describe, I have woken up sweaty (not very sexy for a lady) but simply throwing the duvet off and using just the top sheet aids with those episodes.

One suggestion I do have, taking a probiotic daily can be very beneficial, especially when taking antibiotics and even when not it's a good idea to take them...I ended up resorting to the "natural" route, I use natural anti-inflammatories along with probiotics and fibre supplements and it's certainly helped compared to using nothing at all. Good luck, I hope you find relief soon.

:)

I have had night sweats for years....with a flare or without....doesn't matter the night sweats continue. This disease acts differently with everyone and can involve every organ of the body.