2024-03-03 10:37:36
“We experience remarks almost everywhere. But I think it’s in the medical field where it’s the worst. » Since becoming overweight, Elisabeth has lost count of the number of offensive comments or humiliating situations she has experienced in a medical office. “In fact, we systematically give you thoughts about your weight,” explains the president of the “Weight, Shapes, Well-Being” association in Tours. I’ve already lost 20 kg, and it’s still not enough! If I have trouble getting on the examination table, it’s always my fault… The problem is that obesity is not considered a disease, but a defect. When we go to the doctor, we expect kindness, not such violence. »
While this Monday, March 4, World Obesity Day takes place, many patients like Elisabeth denounce the fatphobia of which they are – and this is a paradox – victims. in the medical field. A phenomenon that some health professionals have identified and are trying to combat. “First there is systemic stigmatization, such as unsuitable equipment, for example blood pressure cuffs which are too small,” explained Rudy Caillet, nutritionist at Colmar civil hospitals, last month during the scientific days of the French Association for Study and Research on Obesity (thing). But the world of health also does not escape explicit, or unconscious, stigmatization due to an overly simplistic vision of the link between diet and body size. »
Devaluation, guilt…
In recent years, several studies have focused on this discrimination. Like a thesis in general medicine supported in 2022 by Aurore Le Merle and Raphaël Payeur which indicated that 87% of respondents had already experienced a situation of grossophobia during medical or paramedical consultations. It mainly concerns “paternalistic type behavior with a moralizing attitude, but also the devaluation associated with guilt”, notes the study, which reports certain comments: “During an MRI, the radio technician laughed saying “he’s not going to come back or he’s going to get stuck”; “We should stop eating Kinder and start doing physical activity again, my little lady.”
Sometimes the remarks are beyond comprehension. At the Afero scientific days, it was reported that a radiologist, for example, advised a woman to go to veterinary school to take her exam. Another patient, suffering from osteoarthritis, was told that “prostheses for mammoths do not exist”. “A gynecologist told one of our members that in Auschwitz, there was no such kind of weight problem,” says Elisabeth, who with her association conducted a study on medical fatphobia. As a result, it has been more than twenty years since this woman went to see a doctor. »
Avoid the medical profession
If some doctors imagine that this will produce an electroshock in their patients, it is a failure. “You should avoid words like “motivate yourself”, “I have already told you what to do”, advises Vanessa Folope, endocrinologist and nutritionist at Rouen University Hospital. Because this sends patients back to their fears, to the belief that their value depends on their body size, and they will end up isolating themselves, avoiding the medical profession. It’s a vicious circle. » For this doctor, it is above all necessary to raise staff awareness about the care of these patients, particularly those who are in a situation of so-called massive obesity.
“I purchased 200 kg suits so that caregivers could already feel the physical but also psychological difficulties, and I facilitated formations, illustrates Vanessa Folope. During the evaluation, 87% of respondents indicated that they had changed a professional practice. » Workshops are also organized to change the mentalities of medical students, particularly in Toulouse. “This old paradigm which says that “I eat less, I move more, and everything is better” must evolve, hopes Rudy Caillet. And wonder if stigma is not the first complication of obesity.”
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