Apocrine Glands

What are apocrine glands?

Apocrine glands are structures within your skin that produce and secrete different bodily substances like thick, oily sweat and earwax. Apocrine glands are part of your body’s exocrine system, and they’re a specific type of exocrine gland.

Apocrine glands go by different names according to their location and what they do in your body. For example:

• Apocrine sweat glands are located mostly in your armpits and genital area. They secrete oily sweat that doesn’t have a clear function. While not fully understood, they may play some role in sexual attraction.
• Moll’s glands are only on your eyelids (along your top and bottom eyelashes). They secrete a substance that contributes to your eyes’ immune defenses against bacteria and other germs.
• Ceruminous glands are only in your outer ear (specifically, in its funnel-shaped canal). They work together with sebaceous glands in your ear canal to make earwax. Your ceruminous glands contribute peptides (strings of amino acids) and antimicrobial proteins that protect your ears against infection.

This article will mostly focus on apocrine sweat glands.

What is the function of apocrine sweat glands?

Your apocrine sweat glands make sweat when you’re feeling strong emotions, like stress or excitement. This is known as emotional sweating. Experts don’t fully understand the function of this sweat in humans. In other mammals, such sweat may play a role in sexual attraction. But experts believe this function, if it exists in humans, is minor.

You might’ve heard that sweat glands produce sweat that cools you down when you get too hot. This is true, but your apocrine sweat glands play only a minor role in this process, known as thermoregulation. Instead, another type of sweat gland called an eccrine gland is mostly responsible. Your eccrine glands produce most of the sweat that cools you down when needed — for example, when you’re working out or have a fever.

Where are apocrine sweat glands located?

Apocrine sweat glands reside within the layers of your skin, mostly in a few specific locations, including:

• Your armpits (axillae).
• The area between your genitals and anus (perineum).
• The area around your belly button (periumbilical area).
• The circular, darker area of skin surrounding each nipple (areola).
• The outer edges of your lips (vermillion border).

What are the parts of an apocrine sweat gland?

There are two main parts of an apocrine sweat gland:

• A large, coiled base (secretory coil) that makes sweat.
• A narrow duct that carries sweat to a nearby hair follicle.

How do apocrine sweat glands release sweat?

Apocrine sweat glands release sweat into hair follicles beneath your skin’s surface, rather than directly onto your skin’s surface. From there, the sweat travels up the follicle (along the hair) until it reaches your skin’s surface.

When do apocrine glands become active?

Apocrine sweat glands are present when you’re born but don’t start working until you hit puberty, likely due to hormonal changes at that time. But you’ll still sweat plenty before that time thanks to your eccrine sweat glands, which start working at birth.

Apocrine glands in your ear canal (ceruminous glands) and on your eyelids (Moll’s glands) start working at birth.

What conditions and disorders affect apocrine sweat glands?

Conditions that may affect these glands include:

• Bromhidrosis (body odor): This is the most common condition that affects a person’s apocrine sweat glands. It’s when bacteria on your skin break down your apocrine sweat, leading to a strong, unpleasant smell. Treatments include medications, procedures and changes to personal hygiene.
• Apocrine miliaria (Fox-Fordyce disease): This is a chronic skin condition where sweat gets trapped within your apocrine glands. This causes the glands to swell and leak sweat into surrounding skin tissue, leading to inflammation. You’ll notice itchy bumps on areas of your skin where apocrine glands are present, like your armpits. This condition mostly affects women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB). Treatments range from topical medications to plastic surgery.
• Hidradenitis suppurativa (acne inversa): This is an autoinflammatory skin condition. It causes painful boils in your skin that keep coming back. The boils form in areas where you have apocrine glands. Treatments include careful skin care, pain-relieving therapies, and medications to ease inflammation and treat infections that arise.

When should I contact a healthcare provider?

Call a healthcare provider if you:

• Have itchy bumps in your armpits, genital area or elsewhere and you can’t figure out the cause.
• Notice a new or unusual scent coming from your skin.
• Feel you sweat too much or too little.

What is the difference between endocrine and apocrine glands?

Endocrine glands make and secrete hormones into your bloodstream. They’re different from exocrine glands, which produce and release other types of substances (not hormones) and send them through ducts to the surface of bodily tissues.

Apocrine glands are exocrine, not endocrine. Apocrine glands don’t produce hormones. Instead, they make substances like sweat and earwax.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

You can probably think of a time when you were feeling nervous — perhaps before a presentation or on a first date. And you could feel yourself sweating in the most inconvenient places, like under your arms. Your apocrine sweat glands were making this happen, despite you trying to wish the sweating away!

But sometimes, your apocrine glands produce sweat that’s more than just a nuisance. It can lead to conditions that interfere with your daily life. Reach out to a provider if you have symptoms like boils, itchy bumps or unpleasant body odor. They’ll identify the cause and help you find relief.