Night sweats during BCG treatment in 2023

Good morning Barry bazzz and welcome to the group. Hot flushes and night sweats are normally associated with hormone treatment for prostate cancer to reduce the testosterone levels but as you have had a Prostatectomy then it sounds unlikely that this is the cause of them. The testosterone is mainly produced in the testes and not the prostate, therefore, as long as the testicles have not been surgically removed or you are not on hormone therapy then there is probably another reason for your symptoms. Some men have a naturally low testosterone level so maybe this is something to ask your doctor about. Also the body temperature regulation is often associated with the thyroid so maybe another question for the doctor to check your levels. Low blood glucose levels are another culprit as are sleep issues. There are many reasons for night sweats and until you have pinpointed what yours is then I can only suggest that you deal with the symptoms. Remember none of us are medically trained.

If the night sweats were associated with hormone treatment then we would normally say try reducing caffeine, try taking sage tablets or drink sage tea, have a fan in the bedroom, have natural fibre bedding and bedclothes and, if necessary ask the doctor for medication. 

Men are not normally given hormone replacement therapy after a Prostatectomy as the testicles remain intact.

I am glad to hear that you are still being monitored by your oncologist and that everything is under control at the moment. After a Prostatectomy the PSA should be negligible but the threshold to determine if there is a recurrence is if it reaches 0.2 or if there are 3 consecutive rises in a short period of time. I hope you don't meet these thresholds but if you do there are things which can be done. Please ask any questions and we will try and help.

Hi Alwayshope,

Thank you for your helpful suggestions.

i have just spent a week in hospital under a Physician and Infectious Diseases specialist who have ordered multiple blood tests, CT scan.PET scan and heart echo test. I am yet to hear the results other than them finding I had a UTI which was treated with antibiotics.

I am hoping I will get these results in a few days. Surely a positive conclusion will come from all these tests. I will alert other members.

i note that night sweats pop up as one of the symptoms after having BCG treatment. I am amazed that at this stage I seem to be the only one who is suffering from this.

Thank you again for your prompt reply and helpful input.

Barry

Hi Barry. We don't have many on the forum who have concurrent bladder and prostate cancer so most of our focus is on the prostate side of things.

The BCG treatment is associated with the bladder cancer and yes this can make you more prone to infections but you have had your bladder removed so the infection control moves to ensuring that you don't get an infection this way. I see that you have asked the question on the bladder forum so I hope you get a more relevant answer from them on this element of your disease.

One thing which might be useful is if you can identify the pattern of the night sweats. Is it every night. Is it worse after certain food or drink. How many are you having a night. Is there a difference between summer and winter.  You have had a UTI - did this change the frequency of the night sweats. The more information you can give the experts helps them to do the right tests to identify the cause.

Hi Alwayshope

Thanks again for your advice. 
bazzz