Excessive sweating is a medical condition, not a hygiene problem — and it can be treated.
The hyperhidrosis service of Chongqing West District Hospital assesses sweating properly, separates the focal sweating disorder that begins in childhood from the generalised sweating that can signal another illness, and works through the treatment ladder — topical agents, injected treatment, energy-based treatment, oral medicine and, only when it is genuinely justified, surgery — with honest expectations at every step.
Assessment before treatment, a treatment ladder that respects the evidence, and a frank account of what cannot be undone.
- Diagnosis before treatment
- Primary and secondary sweating distinguished
- Honest about side effects
- Medical, procedural & surgical options
Sweating care that starts with the pattern, not the product
Everyone sweats. The question is whether this sweating is the focal disorder that behaves in a predictable way, or a symptom of something that needs to be found and treated. That distinction decides everything that follows.
Assess
The pattern is the diagnosis: which sites are involved, whether both sides sweat equally, whether it stops in sleep, when it began, what runs in the family, what medicines you take, and whether anything else has changed. Generalised sweating that starts in later life, comes at night, or arrives with weight loss or fever is investigated rather than treated with a stronger product.
Treat in steps
Treatment follows a ladder, and the step depends on the site and the severity: an aluminium-based antiperspirant used correctly at night, then injected treatment or an energy-based procedure for a defined area, oral medicine when sweating is widespread, and surgery only after the alternatives have been tried and the consequences understood.
Sustain the result
Almost nothing here is curative. Injected treatment wears off after months, oral medicine works only while it is taken, and surgery changes where you sweat rather than how much. Follow-up, honest review of what is and is not working, and skin care between treatments are part of the treatment itself.
Dedicated specialists within a tertiary hospital
Excessive sweating is a dermatology problem first and a procedural problem second. Our team joins the medical assessment of sweating with injected, energy-based and surgical treatment, with the pathology, endocrinology, imaging and anaesthesia support of a tertiary general hospital behind every plan.
Ke He, MD (何锞)
Skin & Laser Aesthetics · Deputy Director
Head of skin and laser aesthetics and the lead physician of this service; more than 20 years on the clinical front line of laser and injectable dermatology. She leads the assessment of excessive sweating and its treatment with botulinum toxin and energy-based devices.
View profile →
Yongbo Jia, MD (贾勇波)
Dermatology Lead · Deputy Director
Head of dermatology; he works up generalised sweating, looks for the medicines and medical conditions that cause it, and manages topical and oral treatment and the skin problems that chronic moisture creates.
View profile →
Tongchun Mao, MD (毛彤春)
Aesthetic Surgery · Deputy Director
Deputy Director and head of aesthetic surgery; he performs the surgical treatment of underarm sweating, including gland curettage and removal, and the scar-conscious revision of what previous surgery left behind.
View profile →
Shaoliang Wang, MD (王韶亮)
Plastic Surgery · Center Director
Center Director; he leads surgical sweat-gland removal and complex wound repair, correction of failed cosmetic operations, and the hospital-grade surgical backup behind every plan.
View profile →Excessive sweating, explained honestly
Start with the basics: what hyperhidrosis actually is, where the line between ordinary and medical sweating falls, how it is assessed, what each treatment can realistically do, and what living with it day to day involves.
What Hyperhidrosis Is, and What Normal Sweating Is
Where the line falls between ordinary sweating and a medical problem, and why primary focal sweating and secondary generalised sweating are different conditions.
Read the guide →The Impact of Hyperhidrosis
How excessive sweating affects work, social life, clothing, skin and mental health, and why it deserves to be treated as a medical problem.
Read the guide →How Hyperhidrosis Is Assessed
Focal sweating patterns, the starch-iodine test, and when blood tests or imaging are needed to look for a secondary cause.
Read the guide →When Sweating Is a Sign of Something Else
Thyroid disease, diabetes, menopause, lymphoma, tuberculosis and medication effects: the secondary causes that a sweating assessment is designed to find.
Read the guide →Topical Treatment for Hyperhidrosis
How aluminium-based antiperspirants work, how to use them correctly, and why the common advice to apply them in the morning is wrong.
Read the guide →Oral Medication for Hyperhidrosis and Its Side Effects
Anticholinergic treatment for generalised sweating, and an honest account of dry mouth, urinary retention and cognitive effects.
Read the guide →We will not sell you certainty we do not have
No treatment stops sweating for everyone, and none of them is a cure. Antiperspirants irritate the skin. Injected treatment is temporary and needs repeating two or three times a year. Oral medicine dries the mouth and can affect the bladder and, in older people, the mind. Energy-based treatment destroys glands but can leave the underarm changed. Sympathectomy frequently replaces sweaty palms with permanent sweating somewhere else, and that cannot be reliably undone. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not giving you honest medical advice.
Ready to take your sweating seriously?
Reach out for an assessment. We will work out whether the sweating is primary or secondary, explain what each treatment can realistically do, and plan the next step with you.
Part of Excessive Sweating — 1 sites on this topic