When I was in my 40s I was having very long and heavy periods. I went to the ob-gyn and he gave me a very cursury exam and pronounced "Lose a hundred pounds and I'll do hysterectomy" and walked out of the room. I mentioned my problem to my Internist and he sent me to another Dr. who did a cone biopsy. The results were I had endometrial cancer and needed the hysterectomy.Because of the prejudice of the ob-gyn I could have died of cancer.Fortunately it was caught in time. I could not believe that Dr.s attitude just because I was fat! I also went to an orthopedic surgeon because I have 2 compressed discs in my back. Of course the first thing he said to me was lose weight and the second was how much did I weigh? I told him 250 lbs and he said "You look like you weigh more." On the way out of his office he made me get on the scale to see how much I weighed. He might as well have come out and called me a liar. Thats what he wanted to do but couldn't because I weighed 250. The attitudes of these Dr.s just point out why many overweight people don't want to go to the Dr. Tell us some of your Dr. horror stories.

Love, Kathy

Down 50 lbs. YEA!

This could get depressing.

I had my PCP tell me that she had a personal bias against heavy people and smokers.

Awe shucks, that's for owning that, but gee whiz, that really doesn't instill a great amount of trust in you. Mind you she's all grins and rah rahing my weight loss, when she really wasn't all the keen on me having the surgery initially.

Yeah, and who's the idiot in this picture? She's still my doc.

When I was still skinny, like 5'4" and 135 pounds, my doctor told me to lose 10 pounds. No wonder I believed I was fat even when I was thin.

I once went to the ER with severe chest pains and arrythmia. The doctor started to take my blood pressure, but the cuff was tight on me......he threw it on the floor and yelled at the nurse, "Bring me an elephant cuff!" My b.p. was not terriby high at that momen, and he said, "You're just like my wife...nothing wrong with you but being too fat." and sent me home.

There have been many times when I did not go to the doctor when I should have because I knew what their first 'diagnosis' would be.....got a hangnail? Lose weight. Got a should pain? Lose weight. Etc Etc.

I went to my PCP two years ago and asked for diet pills. He refused to give them to me and said, "Your only hope is the gastric bypass surgery. You will NEVER lose the weight you have to lose without surgery. You can try every diet in the book but it will not work for you. Your case is hopeless, so without the gastric bypass, you might as well keep eating what you want until you die, because that is exactly what is going to happen if you don't get the gastric bypass surgery." I said, "What about the Lap-Band?" He replied, "The Lap-Band would NEVER work for you, you are way too big for the band to be effective. Your case requires extreme measures, so don't even waste yur time or money on the Lap-band because you are far too out of control for the band to work. You would just eat around the band and never get proper aftercare because of your fierce addiction to food."

I was unable to walk away after that conversation without cursing him out, so let's just say that my PCP is no longer my PCP, and he learned a few "new" words that day. I will not elaborate on WHAT the "new" words were, but I will tell you that when you are truly PISSED, you can make up some doozies from a combination of "not socially appropriate" four-letter, foul words.

That would be 'definately, do not have another child until your weight is gone'. Funny, I have 4 beautiful kiddos and they were all concieved at all different weights!

Yes, I got told to lose weight when I went to the doctor with a very sore neck. I was a physio student and someone had been practicing on me and damn near broke my neck by pushing on one of my cervical vertebrae with less than expert technique.

He looked at me, out of the blue said "how much do you weigh?" and made me get on the scales. Then he said "lose a few kilos". I was 20 years old, 5ft 10 and maybe 170lb! Not skinny, but certainly not even overweight.

These stories make mine sound mild. The most embarrassing thing a doctor ever said to me was about 10-15 years ago. I consulted with a very reputable surgeon in my area about doing gastric bypass (actually, at that meeting I told him that I'd her on Dateline about a WLS they were doing in European countries where they were putting an inflatable band around the stomach-he had never heard of such a thing :-). Anyway, he asked about diets I'd been on and I told him that I was currently on weight watchers... and then he asked me about what I can eat in a sitting and I told him that I can eat a lot without feeling full... example would be that the week-end prior I'd eaten two whoppers and a large fry. His response was, "I'm pretty sure that 2 whoppers and a large fry is not part of the recommended weight watchers program." I was in my early 20's at the time and was stunned by this comment. He spent an hour telling me why I shouldn't get the surgery and why I should modify my eating habits instead... then charged me $150 for the consultation. My personal opinion is that doctor's that don't understand the complexities of obesity have no business doing WLS.

My current GP is a fit and handsome guy in his late 30's/early 40's... you know the kind that make you think, "I can't believe I come here once a year and have this guy shine a light at my fat, hairy butt!" He is so incredibly supportive, has never said a nasty thing to me about my weight, when we review my labs he just says, "You know, any amount of low impact exercise you can get will help these numbers." When I told him I was going to try to get approved by my insurance carrier for lap-band he said he would support me in any way he can, has given me his direct line at work in case I have something come up that I really need to go over with him. He amazes me and I already felt lucky to have him as my doctor... but after hearing these stories I feel even luckier.

As for pregnancy... when I got pregnant 5 years ago at the weight of nearly 350 lbs I started seeing an excellent ob/gyn who told me fat or thin doesn't matter. Some thin women have easy pregnancies, others have complications... it's the same for overweight women.... if complications arise, you deal with them.

These stories make me sad. But it reinforces the truth that doctors are just people. Some have tact, some don't.

I had a PSYCHOLOGIST that I was taking a course from, race ahead of me to the door of a grocery store while he said out loud, "I thought I had better get in here first before before you take it all..." OR something to that fact. I was so shocked, I was speachless.

My third child was a C-section, as was my second. The anasthesiologist couldn't get the epidural into my spine. He poked me for 30 minutes plus, the nurses were whispering into my ear to ask for another doctor. He asked me if I had gained more weight with this child. I felt like saying that even if I did, it didn't all go to MY SPINE.....A second anasthesiologist was called in to do the epidural and he got it on the first try.

Yep, doctors aren't all blessed with reason and tact.

I had a doctor tell me that walking was useless for exercise. I just said "well, it's better than sitting my ass like I was doing before". My current doctor says "at least walk briskly 20 minutes a day, something is better than nothing". My previous doctor also told my mom wants "not to eat anything with eyes" just because her cholesterol was a little high. A bit of an extremist I guess.

I once went to the ER with severe chest pains and arrythmia. The doctor started to take my blood pressure, but the cuff was tight on me......he threw it on the floor and yelled at the nurse, "Bring me an elephant cuff!" My b.p. was not terriby high at that momen, and he said, "You're just like my wife...nothing wrong with you but being too fat." and sent me home.

You should have reported him to hospital administrators. That type of can be expected from some uneducated jerk, but not a doctor! "House" is a TV show, not the real thing!

Not only report them to hospital admins, but in cases like Zippy's, file a formal complaint. Malpractice is a very real danger, especially when prejudice is involved.

I'm not biased against docs, I've got 4 in the family. I've also had a family member die as a result of malpractice.

Holy cow!!! I can't believe what I am reading...well I believe you, it's just awful. My doctor is AMAZING, he is one of the kindest and sensitive docs I've ever met(and I'm a nurse so I've met a bunch). My husband is also a physician and he too is kind and considerate to his patients. I would certainly file a complaint with some of those experiences. As far as malpractice, it'll take more than being rude or making those kinds of comments but refusing to care for you will certainly get you somewhere.

Zippycat,

That is horrible.....I think had that happened to me at the orthopedic surgeon's office, security would have had to escort me out. As for the OB/GYN I would have reported him to whatever medical board could reprimand his prejudiced behind!

What an a---hole! (excuse the implied language)!

Missmonaaz,

You are my kinda girl!!!!

I have a heart condition called supra-ventricular tachycardia (spell?) that raises my heart rate upwards of 200bpm without warning. Luckily it only happens once every few years and it usually goes back down on its own after a couple minutes so it isn't much of a big deal. Unfortunately I had an episode while pregnant that lasted for over 1/2 hour, eventually I had to agree to go to the ER. Everything went fine there they monitored me for another 1/2 hour with no improvement and eventually decided to give me some meds to force my heartrate to drop.

The problem I ran into was afterwards when I went to follow up at my obgyn's office. My normal doctor was out so I was seen by one of her associates. He looked at some bloodwork that had been done at the ER after my episode and pronounced I was diabetic. I responded with something like "OK, I have gestational diabetes, what do I have to do now, and what are the odds of it improving after the pregnancy?" His response was "Oh No! I didn't say you had gestational diabetes, I said you have diabetes. Considering how horribly obese you are there is NO chance this is just gestational." Turns out that I didn't even have gestational diabetes but that the blood test done at the ER had been elevated due to my prolonged elevated heart rate, something I was told by several nurses should have been obvious to the doc but no all he saw was my excess weight and had no interest in looking any further.