Influence of sex and growth hormone deficiency on sweating

Sweat secretion rate (SSR) was measured by the pilocarpine iontophoresis test in (a) 254 healthy children and adolescents (aged 6.0 to 19.2 years, mean age 11.2 years); in (b) 58 healthy adults (aged 20.4 to 75.2 years, mean age 37.6 years); and in (c) eight prepubertal patients with growth hormone (GH) deficiency (aged 4.2 to 13.5 years, mean age 8.9 years). Boys had higher median values for SSR than girls (pre-pubertal children: 92.7 vs 64.5 mg 30 min-1 pubertal children: 110.3 vs 73.1 mg 30 min-1), and men showed higher values than women (135.5 vs 49.2 mg 30 min-1). In addition, the change in sweat excretion rate from childhood to adulthood showed a difference between the sexes. Both pre-pubertal and pubertal boys had a lower secretion value than adult men (p less than 0.001 and 0.01, respectively), whereas girls showed higher secretion values than adult women (p less than 0.01 and p less than 0.001, respectively). There was a significant increase in SSR from prepuberty to puberty (p less than 0.001) for both sexes. The children with GH deficiency, all pre-pubertal, showed significantly reduced SSR (p less than 0.001) compared with the healthy children (median values: 32.8 vs 80.0 mg 30 min-1). We conclude that (a) sweat secretion pattern in children shows a significant sex difference and (b) sweating in children is dependent on growth hormone.