This is just . . . weird

[pegkerr]

Doctor in trouble for calling woman obese.

The story doesn't say exactly how he phrased what he said to her. I gotta think there is more to the story here.

It makes me think of that term Berke Breathed coined: "Offensensitivity."

Comments

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

Difficulty losing weight is a symptom of both hypothyroid and PCOS. For years before I was diagnosed with both, I dieted and exercised and struggled and got to the verge of suicide over my weight.

I had doctors who called me lazy and said I had no willpower. I had doctors who pooh-poohed every issue I went in to address, telling me it would just go away if I lost weight. I have a knee that has gone from bad to worse over the years because no doctor would even x-ray it -- "it's just stressed from weight, lose weight and it will get better." Funny, when a doctor finally addressed it, it turns out to be an issue with the cartilage which is going to be a problem fat or thin, and which has hurt me at my lowest and highest weights.

When I finally spent two years researching my own symptoms and took a 3 inch thick notebook of information to a new doctor, she *finally* ran the tests for PCOS. Guess what? Now I go to one of the top endocrinologists in the country, who tells me with my endocrine conditions he doubts I'll be able to lose very much weight, and I need to focus on being as healthy at this weight as I can.

I don't think anyone who hasn't been obese quite understands just how rude and dismissive doctors can be about it. I had a doctor scribble a "prescription" on his little pad and hand it to me as I left my appointment. It said "Put down fork. Push away from the table." I had a doctor ask me if I ever looked in the mirror. I've had exactly one doctor not familiar with my underlying symptoms tell me they were concerned about my weight and ask if I'd like to address it. That's the appropriate way to handle it. Not by degrading and abusing the patient.

And I don't seem to have any problems finding people who think I'm attractive, regardless of my own struggle with self-esteem. If this doctor actually thinks he has the right to tell his patients that their weight and their love lives are connected, I would safely bet the entire contents of my bank account that he is flat out rude and whatever he specifically said to this woman was traumatic for her. Good for her for reporting him rather than just going home feeling like utter crap and hating herself, like so many of us have done for years. Being a doctor isn't a license to be cruel.

[nmsunbear.livejournal.com]

I had a doctor scribble a "prescription" on his little pad and hand it to me as I left my appointment. It said "Put down fork. Push away from the table."

Unbelievable. Just... I'm so lucky, at 5'2" and over 230 pounds, never to have had something like this happen to me. I did have the RN who insisted I see a nutritionist despite the fact that I'm very well-educated about nutrition (and trust me, she wasn't nice about it). That turned out to be great though, because the nutritionist and I really hit it off. She adored me and wanted to put me on a body-image panel, though that never panned out.