Soon to start iontophoresis... What to expect?

Hi all I'm new here

I have had hyperhidrosis of hands and feet for as long as I can remember, I am now 25 years old and I am due to start a course of iontophoresis in less than 2 weeks yippee!!

I will be having it at the local hospital, three treatments on week 1, two on week 2 then one on week 3 and week 4.

I didn't even know this treatment existed until I saw it on a TV program at the beginning of this year, my doctor had always pretty much told me I just had to live with my sweating and that's that so when I saw this was available I was really excited and thankfully he agreed to refer me for it!

What I really want to ask is can anyone tell me exactly what to expect? On the leaflet they have sent me it says it doesn't hurt, just feels uncomfortable etc but that if you remove your hands or feet during treatment you may get a small shock.

I'm guessing they are going to say it doesn't hurt so as not to put people off but I'd really like to know the truth of exactly how it feels, I'm not bothered as I would do pretty much anything to get rid of this bloody sweating ruining my life GRR but I just want to be prepared and know what to expect really!

If anyone can give me some idea that would be really great, thanks very much!

Hi Wollywoo

that's good that you're getting treatment although I don't think that's going to be enough-7 treatments over a month.

I think (if you can afford it) buy your own machine like the idrostar or idromed GS-don't use the drionic.

It took me two weeks of treatments (one everyday for about 10minutes) for the sweating to calm down. I now do one treatment a week which stops the sweating.

The treatment stings a little but it doesn't hurt. Make sure you have no cuts on your hands/feet. Also the electric current that runs through the water needs to be over 5mA for it to be effective (I read that on this forum-don't know if its true) I use 8-10mA.

hope this helps

Hey, wollywoo. I agree with HH. It took me 10 treatments over as many days to get dry. Even then the maintenance treatments didnt work. So Ive been doing daily sessions for the last month and my hands are perfect so far (fingers crossed). I know it sounds like a lot but thirty minutes a day is a very small price to pay for dryness.
Cant say Ive ever heard of anyone getting good results with a schedule like yours. My Idrostar recommends a similar course and it did nothing except depress the hell out of me. It just takes more treatments.
If HH really is a problem for you, investing in a machine would be well worth it. Anyway good luck.

hydroman123 said:

Hey, wollywoo. I agree with HH. It took me 10 treatments over as many days to get dry. Even then the maintenance treatments didnt work. So Ive been doing daily sessions for the last month and my hands are perfect so far (fingers crossed). I know it sounds like a lot but thirty minutes a day is a very small price to pay for driness.
Cant say Ive ever heard of anyone getting good results with a schedule like yours. My Idrostar recommends a similar course and it did nothing except depress the hell out of me. It just takes more treatments.
If HH really is a problem for you, investing in a machine would be well worth it. Anyway good luck.

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hi, hydroman123, I restart my iontophoresis therapy recently, I did the treatment everyday at 15mA for about 1 hour, after 6 days, I still havn't seen any results. So, how do you make your device work? what's the mA and how long does one treatment last?

hi, hydroman123, I restart my iontophoresis therapy recently, I did the treatment everyday at 15mA for about 1 hour, after 6 days, I still havn't seen any results. So, how do you make your device work? what's the mA and how long does one treatment last?[/quote]

Hey, ultrafrost. I got my machine 6 months ago. Initially I stuck with the Idrostar schedule which was similar to wollywoos. It didnt work nearly as well as I hoped.
I then gradually increased the frequency of treatments till about two months ago when I did twice daily treatments for three days. On the fourth day the sweating had all but disappeared. I tried to get into a thrice weekly maintenance schedule but the sweat slowly started coming back. So I redid the twice daily treatments on three consecutive days followed by daily treatments. That was over a month ago and Ive kept up with the daily treatments. My hands are perfect so far.
I do 10-12 minutes at 13-16mA( I start at 13.6 and the machine goes up to 16 by itself) on each polarity.
It all very subjective and you just have to find what works for you. Just DONT GIVE UP. Good luck.

Hey thanks for the replies guys

Well I guess the crappy NHS are too tight to do any more treatments than that, typical lol but if I can get a machine to do it myself then I am definitely going to try and do that! And at least have the few at the hospital in the meantime to see what it's like I guess!

Could anyone tell me where I can get one of the machines to use myself? And a rough idea of the price?

Also just wondering has anyone here tried it and it just hasn't worked at all? This is what I'm also getting scared about, I've been trying not to get my hopes up too much in case it turns out not to work for me at all for some reason :?

Still I'm glad I'm getting to at least try something anyway at last

I got my Idromed 4 GS from a company that sell equipment to hospitals based in Leicester. website- www.hybec.com
Although it looks like they just specialise in lamps now?

Try these instead-
http://www.androv-medical.com/product.php?xProd=59&xSec=12

http://www.stdpharm.co.uk/default.asp?page=machines

The Idromed itself is made in Germany. Mine cost around £300 but the idrostar is cheaper but that uses batteries, idromed is mains powered. Or you could try ebay! Or make your own machine-people have done this.

If I was you I'd have those treatments at the hospital and if you see an improvement (even a minor improvement) then purchase your own machine. If the hospital do each treatment for 20-30 minutes that would be good.

Its just a case of finding the right balance-something you can do with your own machine.

hope this helps

Cool thankyou for the info

Yeh I think it says on the letter from the hospital that treatment time will be 20-30 mins so fingers crossed it will make at least a little difference!

Well I will definitely be trying to get a machine for home if it looks like it's gonna work for me. Start my treatment on Monday eeek so I guess I will post back when I know how it's going!!

Thanks again