Hi everyone!
I only just found this community and I wanted to share my surgery story for those of you who are struggling with axillary hyperhidrosis.
I had suffered with hyperhidrosis (triple threat: axillary, palmar, plantar) since I could ever remember and I had tried so many different things to no avail. I resorted to taping cotton pads with tape onto my underarms during school and would come home to take them off and my skin would be scratched and cut from the sticky tape. I even tried iontophoresis for my hands and feet but couldn't get it to work unfortunately.
Finally, one of my relatives in Korea found a clinic that offered LSA surgery and I ended up flying all the way out there to get it done. I was still unsure about whether it would lead to compensatory sweating because I heard about the many side effects of ETS but I just went for it.
Basically they had a 2-step approach by
1. lasering the apocrine sweat glands and
2. suctioning off the remainder.
However, the surgeon assured me that there wouldn't be any compensatory sweating as they would leave some sweat glands so that I could regulate my body temperature and sweat normally when it was hot or while exercising.
I was awake during the procedure but with just local anaesthetic so it wasn't painful at all. The incision was about 1cm (it has faded significantly now but it is visible if you know its there and look for it).
Post-surgery I had to be monitored for 2 hours and went home with huge bandages around my arms. After the meds wore off the pain was minimal to none if I remember correctly and it was mainly just uncomfortable to eat as I couldn't lift up my arms. Went back to the hospital to check-up after a couple days and they replaced my bandages to smaller more comfortable ones and started to help me stretch the skin under my arms and regain movement.
I clearly remember the skin feeling tight but no pain at all. I just had to continue doing small exercises to help heal the skin to the tissue underneath that had a layer lasered off (I know, sounds gross).
Apart from a couple routine visits to the hospital to check the incision point and the skin around it, there was no real hassle and recovery went very smoothly.
The cost of it was ~$2000 converted from WON to AUD but I am not sure about prices in other countries. I've heard botox prices are pretty comparable but they only last months whereas, I probably won't have to get this surgery ever again. Completely worth it to me.
I know a lot of people are against invasive procedures but I was so sick and tired of being anxiety-ridden and depressed because of this stupid condition that if there was any chance it was going to give me relief, I was going for it.
I am now dry under my arms every day unless its the middle of summer. I finally feel like I sweat like a normal human being now!!!!
I still struggle with sweating on my hands and feet but just getting rid of one source of the sweat has relieved my anxiety so much. I used to think I was never going to get a boyfriend or get a job but things are looking up for me now. I have resulting social anxiety from all the years of dealing with it but maybe one day I'll have dry hands and I'll keep getting better and better.
I hope this information is helpful to anyone out there. Unfortunately, I've found that its not a well known procedure and the less desirable ETS is more popular (???).
