Overweight People Denounce Medical Negligence Using the Hashtag #medicalfatphobia

08/07/2018 - 08h39

Overweight Brazilians are using the hashtag #gordofobiamédica (#medicalfatphobia) on social media to disclose their experience with healthcare professionals, that range from rude comments about their weight to doctors' complete disregard to their patients' health.

For them, going to a doctor's appointment can be excruciating, because they feel that any health concern will be reduced to their weight issue.

But that is not always the case, and when doctors treat their obese patients with this mix of laziness and disdain, they can do actual harm.

That's what happened to 25-year-old writer Iris Figueiredo. In 2016, she hurt her right knee during a dance class. She went from doctor to doctor, always hearing that her weight was to blame. She was always prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs and physical therapy sessions.

	Rafael Roncato/Folhapress
	Iris Figueiredo

After six months, she found an orthopedist that discovered that she actually needed surgery on her knee. "The other doctors didn't bother to investigate deeply enough to find out that I had tore a ligament. They only claimed that I was fat and that was the reason for my knee pain."

"The root of this type of bedside manner is bad training. Doctors these days don't have any patience - for them, diseases are either caused by viruses or they are psychosomatic," says Antonio Carlos Lopes, president of the Brazilian Society of Internal Medicine.

Otelo Chino Junior, endocrinologist and advisor at Cremesp (Regional Council of Medicine of São Paulo), the doctors' behavior reflects what happens in society. "This results in treating differently obese and non-obese patients," he says.

Translated by NATASHA MADOV

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