
A woman has experienced blood sweats from her face and palms, and doctors can't figure out exactly why it's happening.
How’s this for a Halloween story: a 21-year-old woman in Italy was admitted to the hospital because she began sweating blood from her face and the palms of her hands, according to a new case study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The patient, who was not identified, had no signs of any wounds and had no obvious trigger for her bleeding episodes, which lasted from one to five minutes and then simply ended.
It didn’t seem to happen at any particular time of the day either, happening while she was sleeping or while she was exercising. She’s been dealing with it for the past three years, and had socially isolated herself out of embarrassment. As a result, she experienced major depression and panic disorder.
Doctors conducted an analysis of her skin but couldn’t find anything unusual, and a review of her blood turned up nothing either. She was diagnosed with hematohidrosis, a rare disease that results in blood sweat through perfectly normal skin. They prescribed her with propranolol, a beta blocker meant for patients with heart conditions. It reduced her bleeding, but it did not completely stop it.
“A 21-year-old woman was admitted to a general medical ward with a three-year history of self-limited episodes of bleeding from her palms and face despite no evidence of skin lesions,” reads a statement from the Canadian Medical Association Journal. “There was no obvious trigger for the bleeding, which could occur while she was asleep and during times of physical activity. She stated that more intense bleeding occurred during times of perceived emotional stress. Episodes lasted from one to five minutes. Our patient had become socially isolated owing to embarrassment over the bleeding and she reported symptoms consistent with major depressive disorder and panic disorder. There was no history of psychosis.”
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