So I have always sweated profusely from my armpits. (Docs think I may have minor/subclinical hyperhidrosis, or at least something similar, since I sweat so much there but not the other places, like palms, that other suffers do). I kept building up to stronger and stronger antiperspirants, and the next stronger one never worked better than the last, but made my skin more and more irritated. I don't have sensitive skin at all, and don't have problems with anything else, but regular antiperspirant makes me feel raw, but high powered ones like Certain Dri make me feel like I have chemical burns.

Finally I just gave up on antiperspirant. I was like... fuck it, if I'm going to sweat no matter what, I'm just going to stop with antiperspirant and only use deodorant. Within a week or two, my sweating stopped. Like, I sweated a normal amount if I got very hot, or exercised, but I wasn't gushing sweat out of my armpits with massive pit stains when I wasn't warm or exerting myself at all. Great, I thought... I found the miracle cure! So I just went along with that for a few years.

Eventually, though, someone I'm close to at work pulled me aside and let me know that I smelled. I must've acclimated to it, because I didn't smell myself at all, but she said I smelled like BO all the time. Well, fuck.

So I started using antiperspirant again, and after a few days went and talked to her, and she said the smell was gone. But within a week, the profuse sweating was back full force. And within a week or two after that, the raw sort of chemical-burn feeling was back too.

So I guess, what I'm trying to get at is that ramping up to stronger and stronger antiperspirants may not help you. You may just be one of those people, like me, for whom antiperspirant stops the smell but increases the sweat. My doctor told me I pretty much just have three options:

1) Don't use antiperspirant (only deodorant), and be comfortable and unsweaty, but smell noticeably bad.

2) Use antiperspirant, and smell great, but be very sweaty and in pain forever.

3) Get Botox, which is incredibly expensive because it's not being covered by my insurance, and is only temporary so it's something I'd have to keep doing the rest of my life.