How Long Do We Need Conservative Treatment for Lipedema?
Here's a short answer
Although there’s a significant focus on surgical treatment for Lipedema, conservative care is even more critical than surgery. Conservative treatment is necessary to give us optimal management of our condition. Even if we opt for surgery, we’ll still need conservative care to treat our bodies daily.
Conservative or non-surgical treatment for Lipedema has two goals of care:
Improve patient quality of life by managing the symptoms of lipedema.
Slow the worsening of the condition and the development of an advanced stage known as lipo-lymphedema.
Conservative treatment focuses on decreasing inflammation, lymph drainage, and extreme self-care. Here’s a short list of examples of conservative care:
manual lymph drainage on a regular basis, if necessary
appropriate compression therapy with custom-made, flat-knitted compressive clothing (compression classes II-III)
physiotherapy and exercise therapy
psychosocial therapy
dietary counseling and weight management
Ongoing education on self-management.
Even if you have surgery, you’ll have to continue managing your Lipedema symptoms. That’s why having a well-established plan to address our Lipedema symptoms is so important.
We need 3-6 months of documented conservative treatment to show we’ve “failed treatment” so we can qualify for liposuction surgery. However, this is only a medical milestone we have to show insurance.
Conservative treatment is for life. We need to continue to take care of our bodies. Don’t just go through the motions of your conservative treatment. Instead, make your conservative care part of your daily routine. Listen to your body and give it what it needs to stay healthy, no matter what stage you’re at or what your goal is in surgical treatment.
Take care,
Michelle
Find me on TikTok! I share snippets of information about Lipedema, liposuction, and medical insurance.
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.