This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you appreciate the content here, please consider supporting the newsletter by subscribing and/or sharing! I’ve written quite a lot about BMI-based procedure denials for higher-weight patients. These denials typically amount to a patient having their healthcare held hostage for a weight loss ransom that they are very unlikely to be able to pay.
Thank you for breaking this down. I'm agender and while top surgery isn't an experience I anticipate having, this was still relatable and worth thinking about. Because my lower half carries a lot of my weight, I often don't fit in public bathroom stalls comfortably--or at all. The design of people's home bathrooms can be even worse, in terms of the toilet being installed right next to a wall. I'm lucky I haven't been in a situation yet to deal with worse, as you described here.
And despite having a procedure last year that involved one, I hadn't given much thought to catheters or staff assistance with fat patients until reading this. I really appreciate you highlighting the bias and limitations in the system, so that we can all try to improve things but also so that I can continue to remain aware of what I might encounter. It's helped me prepare and self-advocate in many situations since I started following your work.
Thank you for breaking this down. I'm agender and while top surgery isn't an experience I anticipate having, this was still relatable and worth thinking about. Because my lower half carries a lot of my weight, I often don't fit in public bathroom stalls comfortably--or at all. The design of people's home bathrooms can be even worse, in terms of the toilet being installed right next to a wall. I'm lucky I haven't been in a situation yet to deal with worse, as you described here.
And despite having a procedure last year that involved one, I hadn't given much thought to catheters or staff assistance with fat patients until reading this. I really appreciate you highlighting the bias and limitations in the system, so that we can all try to improve things but also so that I can continue to remain aware of what I might encounter. It's helped me prepare and self-advocate in many situations since I started following your work.