I want and am planning for gastric sleeve; however due to financial and insurance reasons I will be doing this via medical tourism. I have been in contact with A Lighter Me, Janese, but am extremely scared and nervous about being scammed and/or just the legitimacy of the whole experience. Can anyone provide some insight and advise on a surgeon. I am applying for my passport today and I hope to have surgery by the end of the year.

Edited August 28, 201511 yr by ClarissaFifield

Hi Clarissa, I can't provide personal experience with A Lighter Me but I will say I have seen several posts on these forums from satisfied clients. I would suggest that you post in the Self-Pay/Mexico sub-forum to get more responses.

I want and am planning for gastric sleeve; however due to financial and insurance reasons I will be doing this via medical tourism. I have been in contact with A Lighter Me, Janese, but am extremely scared and nervous about being scammed and/or just the legitimacy of the whole experience. Can anyone provide some insight and advise on a surgeon. I am applying for my passport today and I hope to have surgery by the end of the year.

Hi Clarissa! I was going to go through A Lighter Me too...Janese emailed me constantly trying to get me to sign up. When I mentioned that it would take me a while to get funds together, she kept pushing me to take out a loan. I explained that wasn't an option, and I never heard from her again. Then I found Dr. Ariel Ortiz with the Obesity Control Center, and liked what I saw. His coordinators aren't pushy at all, and will send you whatever information you ask for. They are a little more expensive than A Lighter Me, but you pay for what you get. I just made my appointment with Dr. Ortiz for November 16th and I feel that I definitely made the right choice. I don't mean to bash A Lighter Me...they just weren't the group for me. I think they are a perfectly legit company, like they're not just going to take your money and disappear. And several people have had good outcomes with them. You should check out Dr. Ortiz's website if you haven't already. They have some interesting videos of people's testimonials and of Dr. Ortiz himself. It doesn't hurt that he is very good looking! His credentials are great--just as good if not better than most U.S. doctors. People who choose to go to Mexico get very defensive of their doctor and will promote them (I guess I'm guilty of that too). But Dr. Ortiz's track record backs him up and that's what made me decide to go with his clinic. Good luck to you! There are lots of options out there!