I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. As always, I'm not a doctor and I'm not giving medical advice. Here is what I found with some quick research into this.
. Hypoventilation syndrome is a real thing that can have many causes and happens to people of all sizes. When it happens to someone who is higher-weight there is a tendency to blam…
I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. As always, I'm not a doctor and I'm not giving medical advice. Here is what I found with some quick research into this.
. Hypoventilation syndrome is a real thing that can have many causes and happens to people of all sizes. When it happens to someone who is higher-weight there is a tendency to blame the patient's weight (in theory, the diagnosis of “obesity hypoventilation syndrome” can only be given after ruling out any other reasons, in practice that doesn’t always happen) and assume weight loss is the solution.
This is problematic both because there may be another reason for the symptoms and because weight loss rarely works long-term (including with the new weight loss drugs) and often ends with people regaining more weight than they lost (which, if the belief is that size is the issue, would actually exacerbate the problem).
If it were me, I would ask what a practitioner would recommend for patients of lower weights with this diagnosis. I would also make sure that any needed oxygen support is NOT delayed for a weight loss attempt but is begun immediately when needed. I would also ask questions about whether increasing strength/respiratory therapy might be helpful.
Here is some further information - though content note for weight stigma including stigmatizing terms.
I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. As always, I'm not a doctor and I'm not giving medical advice. Here is what I found with some quick research into this.
. Hypoventilation syndrome is a real thing that can have many causes and happens to people of all sizes. When it happens to someone who is higher-weight there is a tendency to blame the patient's weight (in theory, the diagnosis of “obesity hypoventilation syndrome” can only be given after ruling out any other reasons, in practice that doesn’t always happen) and assume weight loss is the solution.
This is problematic both because there may be another reason for the symptoms and because weight loss rarely works long-term (including with the new weight loss drugs) and often ends with people regaining more weight than they lost (which, if the belief is that size is the issue, would actually exacerbate the problem).
If it were me, I would ask what a practitioner would recommend for patients of lower weights with this diagnosis. I would also make sure that any needed oxygen support is NOT delayed for a weight loss attempt but is begun immediately when needed. I would also ask questions about whether increasing strength/respiratory therapy might be helpful.
Here is some further information - though content note for weight stigma including stigmatizing terms.
There's some research about it here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2885790/
BMJ Best Practice also has some good information on this: https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-us/1153