Getting Successful Lipedema Treatment
We are at a disadvantage, but we have resources
Hi Everyone!
Many female-related conditions are either wholly ignored or swept under the medical and insurance rug. We’re all too familiar with this culture of body shaming. Instead, they are being waved away to do better in taking care of themselves.
Physicians who ignore women’s complaints don’t have the knowledge or are interested in taking the time to learn.
Women historically have had to fight for female-focused treatment, from heart disease to breast cancer.
Breast reconstruction after breast cancer-related mastectomies used to be considered cosmetic and was not covered by insurance. It took a massive movement from a strong foundation (Susan G. Komen) and an unapologetic force to push medicine, insurance, and lawmakers to change how breast cancer is treated.
Now it’s our turn.
Within the past few years, Lipedema has become a more well-known condition. This is because a handful of medical specialists in our country are passionate about learning more about this disease. Many doctors work hard to put the knowledge of our disease out into the medical community. Insurances have slowly come up from behind to cover Lipedema treatment (after a few class action lawsuits).
In the year and a half of researching this disease, I find more and more resources as time goes on. These are resources you can print off and take with you to your doctor appointments to help do your small part in educating the medical community. The more we are a spokesperson for our disease, the faster the medical community and insurance will see this as something that needs to be treated.
Here are some resources for you to share with anyone (especially the medical community) who wants to know more about Lipedema:
Lipedema Foundation Brochure
The Lipedema Foundation Brochure comes from Lipedema.org. It has critical questions and shows what to look for in diagnosing lipedema.
Lipedema.org allows you to download any brochure version, which you can download and distribute as you wish. You can also get mailed to you hard copies of the brochure or wallet-sized cards.
Click HERE for the information. This brochure also comes in German and Spanish.
Standard of Care for Lipedema
The U.S. Standard of Care for Lipedema was implemented in 2021 by a multidisciplinary group of Lipedema experts. The National Institute of Health (NIH) supports this standard of care.
Sagepub has the entire Standard of Care on its website. It also has a downloadable version HERE.
Add this document to your surgical preauthorization request. Please share it with any clinician who wants to know more about how to diagnose and treat Lipedema.
National Library of Medicine
Suppose you want to go down a rabbit hole and read about Lipedema medical research, among other medical articles on Lipedema. In that case, this is a great place to learn more about the disease. Click on the site HERE, which will give you tons of Pubmed articles.
Information Leaflet for Patients with Lipedema from Jobst
This leaflet was designed to help you learn more about lipedema and to enable you to evaluate and get the most benefit from available therapeutic options.
Although this is an older resource, the information about Lipedema hasn’t changed. You can click HERE to get to the pdf file.
I hope these articles help you understand Lipedema and empower you to help get doctors up to speed on recognizing Lipedema.
Take care,
Michelle
Find me on TikTok! I share snippets of information about Lipedema and surgical treatment.
Go to the Lipedema and Me page on Facebook! This is a new page, so join me there!
Consult with me! Set up a time to talk one-on-one about your surgical treatment and how to start your surgical journey.