A woman has told how her ultra-rare leaves her sweating uncontrollably from her hands and feet – even when it is freezing cold.
Lydia Carroll, 32, who lives on Vancouver Island, suffers from hyperhidrosis, which causes her to perspire so excessively that her sweat can form into puddles.
The bakery worker admits that her condition can make it tricky when looking for love.
She said: ‘I’m happily single at the moment, but it does make dating hard.
Lydia Carroll suffers from a rare condition called hyperhidrosis which leaves her hands and feet dripping with sweat
‘I’ve accepted my condition and feel confident in myself, but it’s always a struggle to decide how to bring it up to men. It’s not something you just blurt out.
‘I play it all by ear and go on how comfortable I feel. Thankfully, I’ve never had any negativity from men – though often they don’t understand quite how much I sweat.
‘If somebody was to be judgmental and nasty, though, then they wouldn’t be the one for me anyway.’
Lydia, who is originally from Australia, now lives on Vancouver Island, where, although temperatures can dip well below freezing, her symptoms have not eased.
Even in the coldest of temperatures Lydia is left soaked and says that her sweating gets worse in stressful situations
Lydia has suffered from the condition since she was a baby and says that she has found it challenging when it comes to dating
A sufferer since she was tiny, she continued: ‘As a baby, I’d be in my bouncer and sweat would be dripping off my feet onto the floor.
‘When I was young, I didn’t care what people thought but, as a teen, I grew more and more self-conscious.’
Aged 16, Lydia broke down, asking her parents, who had always done their best to boost her confidence, what was wrong with her. Taking her to see their GP, Lydia was diagnosed with hyperhidrosis.
‘My friends and family were all supportive, but I worried about boys thinking I was disgusting,’ she said.
‘I remember one boy turning around to talk to me on the school bus. I tried to hide my hands from him, as I could feel them sweating, and by the time he got off there was literally a puddle on the vinyl seat underneath them.’
When she was younger Lydia wasn’t bothered by her condition but as she reached her teens she became more self concious
She was diagnosed with the condition at 16 and ever since sticks to certain materials and carries a towel or fan with her
With no obvious trigger for her condition, Lydia has to make sure she is always prepared for a flare-up.
This means only wearing certain fabrics, like cotton or denim, as anything non-absorbent would leave her drenched. And she dreads nerve-wracking situations, such as dates or job interviews.
‘It’s really hard to make an impression, before my condition kicks in and takes over,’ she said. ‘The difficulty is, it’s not just sweaty palms. I get beads running down the tops and sides of my hands and feet.
‘It really affects what I can wear. For example, I can’t wear strappy shoes, as my feet get too wet and I slide around in them. Once, I even ended up breaking a pair.
‘I get really anxious if I don’t have something with me that’ll help, like a fan or towel. Mercifully, I have no issues with body odour.’
Lydia says that she feels most at home at the gym as everyone sweats there
Describing a flare-up, explaining how it will be linked to her emotions as well as her physical surroundings, Lydia said it begins with a tingling sensation, before beads of sweat start to form and sometimes trickle down her hands and feet.
In the past, she has tried various specialist lotions and antiperspirants, as well as a contraption that treats the condition using gentle electrical pulses – but so far, nothing has worked.
Still, Lydia remains hopeful, and has even found solace in the gym. ‘The gym is the one place on earth where it’s acceptable to be sweaty. There, I don’t stand out – I just look like I’ve had a good work out,’ she said.
‘I love weightlifting the most, even though hyperhidrosis sometimes means I struggle to grip the bars.’
Determined to stay positive, Lydia, regularly posts about her condition on Instagram and hopes others will follow her lead, using the hashtag #normalisesweating.
She said: ‘I’m excited to see if there is a cure in the future. ‘For now, I wish people would stop expecting perfection from each other, then people like me wouldn’t feel as if we have to hide.
‘There’s this misconception that we’re gross and unhygienic, when actually it’s a genuine medical condition.’ Images