Now this GP has known me for about 100 lbs now, through multiple diagnoses that I had to push to get recognized, but when I went to him about this, he basically told me that my energy was most likely awful because of my weight, and didn’t do the additional testing or up my thyroid med, as I had requested.

I’m not the most assertive person in the world, but after 20+ years, I ended up finding another doctor, who immediately agreed to double my thyroid med dose and re-check my bloodwork in a month. Amazing – once again, I was right – I feel much better on the doubled dose, All it took was a doctor who saw me as a whole person and not the cumulative effect of my weight.

P.S. to the 22 year old who was having trouble conceiving and also has excess hair, please find a doc and ask to be tested for poly-cystic ovaries. This is something you want to know about, and you can be treated for it. (It’s one of my several endocrine issues, and probably the main one that affects my weight.)

In England it seems that fat-hate is inculcated into doctors at medical school, and nurses too. However due to the vagaries of the NHS I have never actually met my GP, just a succession of locums.

I was spoiled for a while, having a doctor for a father and hearing nothing remotely close to weight/shape bias from him. Then I was spoiled further by an excellent gynecologist who only mentioned weight when I’d gained much more than usual in a single year (and that was “It looks like you’ve gained a good deal of weight this year. Anything going on?”).

Then I got a mysterious rash I couldn’t figure out the cause of. All the allergists and skin specialists in my area were booked solid for a 4 month minimum, so I finally made an appointment with a GP. Total asshole. Despite going in to get a referral for someone to see me about the rash I ended up getting a half hour lecture on my weight and eating habits (which he was totally wrong about, btw, and wouldn’t believe me about). When I saw him again two months later the nurse weighed me with my coat and boots on, as opposed to the prior visit when I’d been in a t-shirt and sock feet, then berated me for gaining a pound. Again, he went on about weight, even though the reason for my visit had nothing to do with it.

I never went back. They can kiss my ass.

There are very few fat-friendly health professionals out there because are taught that fat is bad, thin is good, no matter what, and it shows in how they treat patients.

As for myself, I think I’ve been lucky in that my primary docs and GYN have never really harped too much about my weight, though when I did go for my physical last year and asked not to be weighed, the medical assistant/nurse said that I HAD to do it and weighed me anyway. However, on my most recent visit, interestingly enough, I got that same assistant, and when I asked not to be weighed, she didn’t weigh me. Hmmm…maybe she “got it” that time.

I hope it gets better, but who knows?

It makes me really sad to see just how much self-hatred is ground into people at a young age.

I’m lucky in that I don’t think I’ve had a lot of problems with doctors/nurses/etc treating me badly because I’m fat, but I have been notoriously oblivious to such things in the past.

From now on, though, I’m going to do my best to stand up for myself at doctors’ offices. I don’t mind the weighing, but I honestly don’t want to know the number, because I’ve been working very hard to stop associating my worth as a person with that number.

I am deathly afraid of getting a pelvic, though. At 25 I’ve never done it, but will be looking over the list of fat friendly health professionals to try and find some in my area.