Do Doctors Discriminate Against Fat Women?

on February 2, 2010 at 11:28 AM

doctor According to this article on Yahoo! Shine, doctors are biased against overweight women, and as a result may be less patient with them or more dismissive of their health problems...Yikes! It's frightening to think that women would receive substandard health care because of their weight!

The article suggests that overweight and obese women may be discriminated by their doctors or healthy care professionals in the following ways:

Overweight women may have a harder time getting health insurance; furthermore, they may be forced to pay higher premiums than women who are not overweight.
With respect to medication, overweight women are more likely to be misdiagnosed or prescribed the wrong dosage.
Doctors are less likely to detect cancer early enough for effective treatment in overweight women.
Overweight women are less likely to find a fertility doctor to help them have a child.

So why might some doctors and health care professionals overlook, misdiagnose, neglect, or fail to treat women who are overweight? The article suggests the following reasons:

Doctors assume that weight is within a women's control; therefore, they may be dismissive with a patient they assume "does not care" about their weight and other health issues.
Being overweight can complicate and exacerbate many health problems; doctors may assume that a woman's health problems are caused solely by their extra pounds and not something else that has yet to be diagnosed (cancer, disease, etc.).

Have you ever felt discriminated against by your doctor because of your weight? Should a person's weight determine whether or not they receive good health care?

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About the author Kim Conte

has shoes that make people stop her on the street and ask "Where did you get those?" but it doesn't work for taxi cabs as she was hit by one ... and lived to tell the tale. She has more freckles than Lohan but way less attitude. And she's a fierce cook with tons of recipes to share -- and wishes she could share some with Bourdain.

Filed Under: general health, medical tests, obesity, weight loss

Comments (4)

Pishyah

on Feb 2, 2010 at 1:01 PM

100%, YES. As a teenager and before I became a mom I was VERY thin. EVERYTHING that was wrong with me had to do with my weight. I needed to eat more, etc. About a year before I got pregnant I leveled my weight off at a healthy point and suddenly the doctors listened to me. I get pregnant, become overweight and after having him everything was dismissed. The doctors were jerks because I was overweight. I lose the weight, become healthy again and even jerk doctors were nicer. Sadly, doctors are always biased and dismiss stuff due to something. Either it is related to what they want to focus on (being "too thin" despite it being natural) or they ignore it because they think you're fat and don't want to address the issue.

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aurorabunny

on Feb 2, 2010 at 2:09 PM

It's the same as being a smoker. If you have something going on that could possibly be causing your health problems (being overweight, smoking, whatever) they'll most likely just blame it in YOU, pass you along and cash their check.

I think it's great that doctors encourage people to lose weight (and quit smoking) because neither one of those things is healthy so hopefully no one misunderstands what I'm saying. But that's different than having a doctor that stops listening beyond that.

lilangel2505

on Feb 3, 2010 at 2:57 PM

Yes. It's like since they think I'm a lard ass for being overweight, then I'm a bad mom too because my daughter is thin, but normally so. They think she's too thin and I'm a lard ass. I don't care if I'm insulted, but don't insult the way I parent because I may be a single mom (which is another discrimination), but I do a damn good job.

Simply_Janeen

on Feb 27, 2010 at 6:36 AM

I have been fortunate to, at this point, not really have any health problems at this time because I am overweight. And I not have issues in the US due to my weight, not even while I was pregnant. Admittedly, there has been more of a concern due to my weight for diabetes so they're always checking my blood sugars but having a mom who is diabetic and a half brother who was diagnosed at 25, I'm okay with that as if I have it, I would want to know.

Being in South Korea, on the other hand, has been a challenge. I'm pregnant and overweight and the weight bias is HORRIBLE here. And it goes down to at least 200 pounds. I've heard stories of moms who have not been able to get an epidural for being over 200 pounds. I've heard of a mom who was over that weight who was told that she couldn't possibly get pregnant by a nurse when she went in for a pre-conception check-up. She went back after she conceived. I'm having a lot of issues here because I'm overweight and pregnant. My OB is scared of me and expects me to have many complications. I don't feel comfortable with the health care I get here because of that (hello, who wants an OB who is scared of his patient?!). So the plan is for me to go home and it's the weight bias here that has a lot to do with it.