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Swollen Lymph Nodes after alcohol consumption

Hello,

I am a 20 year old female who has been experiencing swollen lymph nodes in the groin area for about 2 days after i consume alcohol. Muscle soreness is also present during this time. I have been taking Doxycycline for acne purposes since late august. I have had my tonsils and adenoids taken out when I was 16 because of frequent infection and one tonsil constantly swollen. Other than this, I a have been healthy. When i first noticed the swollen gland in my groin, i went to the gyno. He told me that he thought it was just my lymph nodes clearing up a virus, and to come back in a month. I was supposed to go back a day ago, but got my period. This recently happened a second time after i drank alcohol the night before. What do you think this is? I thought it may be hodgkin's disease, and looked up the symptoms, and i do not have any of the night sweats, fever, or painless swollen nodes. However, I am worried about this. Should I go see the doctor earlier than my rescheduled appointment for January 17th? This will be about 2 months after my first episode of swollen nodes in the groin area.  Thanks again.
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1081992 tn?1389903637
COMMUNITY LEADER
benjy, it's not likely at all that you have HL. It's far more likely that you have immune dysfunction. Maybe along with that you have some actual infection, because you get that discharge.

You might have developed autoimmuntiy because of the drug, if the Roaccutane came before your 1st symptoms. You can look up "molecular mimicry".
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Avatar universal
Hi, I am male.  I have had this about 10 -15 times before in my life, over the last 10 -15 years.  Am now in my mid 30s.  I just had a big weekend of drinking (mainly beer), and also a lot of relationship stress/troubles thrown in too.  It's been about nearly 3 days, and I have a very painful lump under my left arm as i type this.  If i was to raise both arms out to the side, I simply wouldn't be able to on the side with the lump, the pain would be far, far too great, and would feel like my armpit would split open.

I have battled depression over the years also, and I do sometimes drink heavily.  When I experience the symptom, it's always under the armpit, has been under both arms.  Sometimes it has lasted for nearly 5-6 days, and I feel may have even become infected sometimes.  

I have had discharge from the swellings several times, and have been in agony with this, even when no discharge.  I actually have scars under my armpits, from where I have had this previously, and there has been a discharge like a large boil.  

Other symptoms I have had, over the years is swollen joints and localised pain like others have been describing.  As I type, I have an extremely painful inner top of right wrist, which i've had before, it feels like a pain in the bone, and is very sensitive to the touch, along with previous knuckle joint pains, carpal tunnel kind of symptoms, trigger fingers.  I've been to doctor about those - never the swollen underarms - and it's been round and round in circles, negative for arthritis, possibility of something called teno sinovitis.  Blood tests, ultra sound, nerve tests.  No proper advice.  No proper conclusion.  To me, it's like hiring somebody to play at a wedding, and they can't play a note.  What are these people actually trained in?  Useless 3-6 month at a time NHS waiting lists to see 'specialists', where you don't have the symptom on the day you get to see them, so they write you off, every single time.

I suffered from acne for years and took Ro-accutane, which people have even successfully sued Roche, the company who makes it, millions for, due to some of the horrific side effects it causes, as it's actually a chemotherapy drug, and nobody was told.  Some of those side effects include joint pain, and bone pain etc etc, among other things  At this stage, I have no idea if this is all linked or not.  Now there's the whole Hodgkins Lymphoma possibility, like i have also seen elsewhere.  I certainly hope not. x
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20239284 tn?1493186024
i had a high drinking last night, when i woke up in the morning i saw lymph node swallow below my ear, but its not painful. Please tell me if that any chance of cancer i am scared plz help...
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Avatar universal
I was just reading along because I've been worried about Hodgkin's too. As far as the swollen lymph nodes, my glands in my neck do swell up shortly after I drink alchol. And I mean RIGHT after I start drinking. It's never the next day or 2 that I experience this. And you do have a good point, what if it is an allergic reaction? But, I have a swollen gland in my groin area that has been there for the past 6 months or so and along with that I've been experiencing more than normal fatigue and exhaustion. So all these things combined does have me worried. I have an appointment with my doctor on January 5th and it can't get here any sooner.
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Avatar universal
From what I can tell, for those of you with clean scans at least for cancer and whatever else, your swollen lymph nodes are likely the result of your liver.  One of the numerous functions of the liver is to produce lymph fluid in response to a perceived attack on the body.  The lymph fluid carries a high does of white blood cells which are used to fight off infection and generally improve immune function.  So when you drink alcohol, your liver is perceiving it as an attack (likely because the functioning is already impaired for some other reason, stress, illness, etc) so it dispatches lymph fluids to the nodes to fight off the attack.  This would explain why it just starts happening at a certain point in your life even though it has never happened before.  You may want to have your doctors check your liver functioning as in general, a few social drinks doesn't cause a problem for most folks.  The other explanation (and in fact the 2 may even be tied together somehow) is an allergic reaction to some component of the alcohol.  So even if your liver is working fine, your intestines perceive the alcohol as an allergen which causes histamine to be released.  In turn, your liver dispatches the lymph fluid to fight off the attacking allergen.  So slightly different causal path but same result.  
This is all just educated guessing on my part so feel free to ask your doctors all these questions and see what they think?
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Avatar universal
Hi all! I also have a swollen lymph node right underneath my right armpit and I am worried. Sometimes theres pain and sometimes not. I've noticed when I do drink the night before and when I wake up the next morning, my lymph node swells up more and is very painful. I also noticed when I dont drink my lymph node is not as big. I do get night sweats. I already set an appointment with my Dr. So they can examine my lymph node but Im extremely afraid of what this could be. Should I be worried? Can anyone out there give me some input on this matter?
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1081992 tn?1389903637
COMMUNITY LEADER
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Avatar universal
Canned tuna may also contain sulfite as a preservative. Wine & beer certainly do. Do a small test. Try a drink or two of rum preferably brown rum. A good quality rum may be preferred( if you're gonna have a drink for the sake of health it should at least be smooth one) & see if your nodes swell. If they do not, its probably the sulfite in beer, wine and/or the canned tuna that may be your problem. Brown rum is made of fermented sugar cane and usually contain less "offending" elements. Hopefully, its a less processed rum. Also go see your doctor. If it does swell the node definitely go to a doc if you haven't already. If your nodes don't swell, you owe me a drink.lol
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Avatar universal

Im trying to narrow it down, but usually either a can of tuna with crackers or after drinking wine only do i get these big tender swollen nodes under the groin inner thigh area. Its scary! Im not too sure, but im thinking its bacteria from tuna or maybe also a "sulfite" reaction found in the wine.

Anyone? 100% when i get that can of tuna to test i go... "here we go again" and it happens. Or after heavy wine drinking..
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Avatar universal
I have all of these exact same symptoms after drinking....the lymph nodes in my stomach, chest, back of neck and under my arms are so tender to touch and my whole body aches like I'm coming down with the flu. It lasts 2 days and always goes away and generally doesn't happen until about 36 hours after I've had alcohol. Has anyone from the earlier comments had any answers? My chin hit my desk when I googled it out of curiosity and all that came up was lymphoma! I thought I was just drinking too much, but the last time it happened I only had 3 beers over 6-8 hours. Nothing but pain the next day.
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Avatar universal
Glad i found this site. I get exactly the same symptons. The only common time i get the swallow nodes in my legs is after drinking Beer. Sometimes just a few beers or allot. It seems the more i have the worse i feel. I notice the pain in my legs the next day and it usually lasts for a few days. I have been to the Doctors now many times about this and had heaps of tests from HIV tests to Blood count tests all saying that im fine and the Doc can never find the swallon nodes in my legs. But they hurt like hell and makes the inner thigh muscle very sore too. Maybe i am allergic to the beer. I will stop drinking for a while and see if it stops.
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Avatar universal
Hi I have just noticed a link between consuming alcohol and getting swollen glands. I am 26 and go out to drink once every 4-6 weeks (used to be alot more in my younger days) but only recently have I started to have very swollen painful glands the next day. I googled 'swollen glands after consuming alcohol' and the results were either about alcohol intolerence or Hodgkins Lymphoma. I have cut down massively on drinking because my tonsils and uvula also swell and are very sore for a good 2-3 days after. My whole body is tender to touch, its like my skin aches. I have never had this problem in the past its so strange to start now, and it happens no matter how many units of alcohol I consume the previous night. I have no other symptoms to alcohol intolerence i.e. I am rarely sick or nausious nor have difficulty breathing etc. But I do have night sweats which is another symptom of Hodgkins Lymphoma, plus I fall into the younger age group for this. I am just worried that my doctor won't take my concern seriously and just brush my worries aside making me out to be a hypocondriac- as he has already done this for another condition I have (polycystic ovaries).  It's been helpful to see others with the same issue and had it followed up with no bad outcome, its just the scary stories you read, they seem to have a larger impact. Its appreciated that they are there to increase awareness but then you feel silly to self diagnose. I wish you all the best. Claire
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Avatar universal
I noticed that everyone on here is saying they had tests done and everything was normal, but just so you know, most Hodgkin's Lymphoma patients blood work comes back completely normal. You have to do a full biopsy of the lymph node to diagnose it. Best regards.
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Avatar universal
Same here, swollen lymph nodes in the groin after drinking alcohol... for months I thought it was a groin strain or something similar.  I just turned 40 and this has only happened in the last 6 months.

Having never heard of it, I Googled and Hodgkin's Disease appeared on the list of results.  Having had Hodgkin's when I was 18 and having been in remission for 23 years, naturally I was naturally alarmed.

My blood tests just came back fine and my doctor thinks it's just an indication that I'm drinking too much when I do drink (the last bout was caused by a marathon drinking session with a cousin I haven't seen in years).

Anyhow, having linked the two things, I've laid off the drink (beer mostly in my case) for a couple of weeks and am feeling fine, no pain and as an added advantage I have more energy, am feeling better and I'm saving probably $40-50 a week.  I may even lose twenty pounds.

I guess my body finally got the message through :-)  
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Avatar universal
HI all- I ALSO get swollen nodes in my inner thighs after I drink- it is crazy. I thought that I was the only one that that happened 2! Docs do not know everything. I am getting blood tests done on Tuesday for this problem. I think that it is an immune system thing. Bummer- I like to drink once in awhile. If anyone can give me tips on anything let me know! Thanks!
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Avatar universal
Same problem- never answered. Every time I drank too much I got swollen painful lymph nodes under my arms- over several years when I was younger. I asked every dr about it and never got an answer. I am in my 30's now and no complications. It is prob nothing, maybe our bodies are just more sensitive? It did happen every single time.  
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1 Comments
How many years is several exactly?
Avatar universal
fireB- I actually forgot that I had posted this 2 years ago. I ended up going to my doctor's. She tested me and everything came back normal, so there was no real explanation for the swollen glands.

In hindsight, however, I was a college student and I did drink rather frequently and quite a lot (most college students do without realizing that). I was also under a lot of stress and some emotional problems that I was not very aware of. I really do think that the stress and alcohol combined was the cause of these swollen glands. But this does not mean that your lymph nodes are swelling for the same reason. The most common reason for lymph nodes to swell is fighting off infection, so it could be that you drank too much and the alcohol compromised your immune system, causing your lymph nodes to swell in order to fight something off...to play it safe, see your doc.

P.S. I am not a medical professional!  
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Avatar universal
Hello.  I have the exact same issue occur two days after a heavy night of drinking.  Painful and swollen lymph nodes in my neck and groin.  I also seem to just have painful spots all over my body.  This usually always happens the second day after a night of heavy drinking.  I was wondering if your doctor ever discovered what was going on...?
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Avatar universal
Thank you. I will try to get an appointment earlier.
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Avatar universal
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi. I've thought about your case and have looked up the literature regarding lymphoma symptoms.  I've found that some patients with lymphoma do experience pain and swelling in their lymph nodes after drinking alcohol.  This is just an observation. No explanation was offered in the literature why this happens.  I'm not saying that you probably have lymphoma.  But if the lymph node swelling persists and does not go away completely after a few days, it might be wise to have it checked earlier.
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Avatar universal
No, I am not sexually active. I only feel tenderness in the nodes the day after i have a few drinks, and I am fine otherwise. The symptoms always go away within 2 days after. Should I definitely still call my doctor to make the appt. earlier?
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Avatar universal
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi.  Before considering the possibility of hodgkin's disease, we should first try to exclude the more common cause of swollen groin nodes, which is infection.  Are you sexually active? Various sexually transmitted diseases can present with swollen groin nodes, so this may be a possibility.  I doubt that the alcohol directly caused those swollen nodes.  If ever, this would be the first time that I've heard of such a thing happening.  If you're still having symptoms at present, it's probably better to see a doctor earlier.
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