Fat Discrimination at the Doctor's Office?

[hyphenate]

http://www.thatsfit.com/2010/02/02/fat-discrimination-at-the-doctors-office/

Posted on Feb 2nd 2010 3:00PM by Deborah Dunham

Fat discrimination comes in many forms, but there is one place where it is not only hurtful, but potentially dangerous: The doctor's office.

Health magazine recently did an investigative report that found women who are more than 20 pounds overweight may not get equal treatment when they seek medical treatment. In fact, the 70 million females who fit this profile often have a harder time getting cost-effective insurance (or any insurance) and getting an accurate diagnosis or drug prescription. They also have a more difficult time finding a fertility doctor when needed and can be alienated from potentially life-saving cancer screenings and treatment.

Most patients assume that those in the medical profession are non-biased -- after all, they are there to help people with health issues -- yet, fat discrimination happens more often than we think said Dr. Jerome Groopman, a professor at Harvard Medical School and author of "How Doctors Think." "Our culture has enormous negativity toward overweight people, and doctors aren't immune," he told the Today Show. "If doctors have negative feelings toward patients," he said, "they're more dismissive, they're less patient, and it can cloud their judgment, making them prone to diagnostic errors."

Granted, it's true that the more fat and tissue a person has, the more difficult a diagnosis can be. Lumps can be harder to detect, heart defects can be harder to hear and many health conditions -- from joint pain to asthma -- can be because of excess weight. Pelvic exams can be difficult and uncomfortable due to excess tissue that has collapsed on the vaginal walls, and overweight patients don't always fit onto routine scanning machines. Drug dosage levels can be compromised, too, as they are often tested on average-sized people, but when it comes to those who are larger, doctors could be guessing.

Then there's the issue of how much risk a doctor is willing to take. Dr. A.J. Yates Jr., associate professor in the department of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told the Today Show that there are definite concerns about operating on patients who are significantly overweight due to the procedures being more time consuming, difficult and risky.

more at link

[liberalhistorian]

1. You'd think doctors wouldn't mind overweight patients,

since their increased health problems or potential for increased problems would mean more money in their pockets.

The same people who think the medical profession is nonbiased are likely the same people who think the justice system really is blind. Both, however, are made up of human beings, all of whom have their entrenched biases and preconceptions that color their actions, whether they recognize and acknowledge it or not.

[hyphenate]

2. I wholly agree eom

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Actually the reason why surgeons don't like overweight

(no not 20 pounds, but 50+) is because of the increased risks. That is a fact.

This is why we now have sub specialist in BARIATRIC patients. those who are 35+ BMI overweight, as in morbidly obese.

Oh and as a medic, these patients have increased.

In ten years I picked up only one. Sweet lady, I could never find a vein for an IV. No, not for lack of trying, they needed a central kit, to do a peripheral at the ER. My catheters would not reach.

And yes there are plenty of assholes who should not be doctors. And there are doctors who are biased, or like my doc. She rarely brings the subject up anymore. She should, but quite a few of patients react in unpredictable ways.

This is a complex issue by the way.

[The Straight Story]

4. try telling a Dr you Smoke - they think any time you are ill is related

You could be run over by a bus and they would spend their time telling you smoking caused your illness.

Overweight AND smoke - my god, you are like the devil (especially here it seems). Any health problem you have, no matter what it is, is cause by one of those two things. Got cancer? Only one cause of it. Diabetes? Only one cause. Heart issues? All your fault and only one of two causes.

When my X GF's mom got breast cancer and died we were all shocked. Great health, ate well, never smoked, right weight, etc. The poor dr had nothing to blame it all on. I would bet anything if she smoked or overweight he would have put that down as the cause - mainly because so many are damned lazy.

[roguevalley]

12. the odds of death from treating and/or operating on fat patients is

enormously higher than lighter people. Watch a few shows about doctors treating obese people. Its terrifying to operate on someone who can die on the table from blood clots, heart failure and a dozen more things.

[Statistical]

14. More risk.

More money in your pocket is kinda meaningless if to achieve it you are taking more risk. More risk = greater chance money will be flowing out of your pocket.

That being said humans are imperfect creatures and biases are part of the package. We can only hope to build a society where biases are kept at a minimum.

[Texasgal]

5. How sad..

Again, this shows how much women are thrown under the bus when it comes to healthcare.

It's horrible and disgusting!

[AnnieBW]

6. No shit, Sherlock

I've been to doctors that claimed that all of my problems were because I was fat. "Just lose weight". Well, I still have PCOS even though I'd lost weight.

And don't get me started about the damn MRI machine that I barely fit into. I'm just glad that it was scanning my knee and not my internal organs.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Have you tried a woman doctor?

Particularly one NOT born in the US?

I am serious.

Mine was not born (or trained for that matter) in the US...

Weight is not a high pressure item. Hell when I started gaining like there was no tomorrow we worked together to figure out the cause... (medicine side effect, it sucks, still trying to lose some of it)

[1776Forever]

7. Right now I am lucky as I have a great woman Dr. but in the past I have had that happen! n/t

[Brickbat]

8. It's not that the fat creates "negative feelings" in doctors -- they often just say "lose 10 pounds

and come back in eight weeks," thinking that whatever your complaint is, it probably has to do with the weight you're carrying.

[eridani]

9. When fat is linked with poorer health outcomes, the studies are NEVER corrected for this factor

And it's worse. Many fat people refuse to go to the doctor whenever something seems wrong because they can't handlt the constant belittling.

[Donnachaidh]

10. A doctor actually told me my disability was due to weight issues

Of course, she never BOTHERED to run the tests which proved the nerve damage that had been caused by a workplace accident, because SHE decided the testing wasn't necessary.

Doctors can be as stupid as everyone else. But they are 1000 times more dangerous, because of their mistakes.

[hyphenate]

13. I've had enough of my own incidents

in this area, and it's very difficult to come to terms with such bias on a regular basis.

A friend and I both had a knee problem--she was thin, I was overweight. SAME damned knee problem, and she got treated a million times better than I was. In fact, the doctor I had was overweight himself--he looked like he was 12 months pregnant, and he was criticizing me? I almost reported him to the AMA, or whatever governing body the clinic had at the time.

A friend of mine was morbidly obese, and it took several years of being treated like a second class citizen for doctors to finally discover that she was not an asthmatic, but had pulmonary hypertension, which, in fact, was the cause of her obesity. She died 7 years after her diagnosis--I often imagine what it would have been like if she had gotten a diagnosis earlier.

Everytime I used to go to the doctor, they tested me for diabetes. It wasn't until I had my first heart attack that my glucose level was high enough to classify me thusly. It infuriates me that just because I was overweight, that I HAD to be a diabetic.

I'm sure all of us have had to deal with some inequities throughout our lives along this line--I just wish it wouldn't color the opinions of those who are supposed to be caregivers.

[DailyGrind51]

15. "Fat people" are one group that it seems to be "PC" to be "unPC" about.

"Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot" Al Franken

[uncommon]

16. At a doctor's office I used to go to, one of the doctor's was notoriously anti-fat -

people talked about this doctor all over town.

I am sure it had an impact on her business, and I'm glad. Doctors are supposed to help people, not make them feel like shit.

[GoCubsGo]

17. I went to one like that

Emphasis on "went". I'm overweight, but not morbidly obese. And, I'm probably in better shape than the asshole doctor that gave me shit about my weight. On what became my final visit to him, he scolded me for not going to see some specialist because of some blood tests he did the previous year. Of course, nobody bothered to call me about those blood tests. And, he didn't give me a chance to point that out, as he was too busy berating me over my weight. "You need to pull away from the table", he blathered. He never bothered to discuss the fact that I have been fighting my weight all my life, and that I probably know far more about nutrition and weight loss than he and his whole staff put together. Oh, and did I mention he rolled his eyes when I said I went to the gym and worked out every day? Later, I got my next blood test back, and my cholesterol levels were high. I was ordered to come back and get a special diet to lower it. I did, and they handed me a photocopy of a couple of pages from some nutrition text book that was published in the 1950s. The final straw came a couple of weeks later when his wife's campaign literature showed up in my mailbox. She was running for City Council. Wanna bet she got her mailing list from her husband's list of clientele? And, yes, they are republicans. Surprise, surprise.