Raise your hand if you have ever been to the doctor and have been advised to lose weight, even if it had nothing to do with your ailment? So, everyone then? Those saying no, well, have you ever considered the fact that you aren’t considered obese by any standard? So, this is not for you then, sit down, this obviously wasn’t directed at you. 

This is a pattern with doctors, and society in general to be honest but you can ignore what everybody else says. Except, when it’s your doctor, you tend to take it seriously, you kinda have to, and it’s frustrating. 

“I have a back ache”. ‘Oh, yeah, try losing some weight”. Sure, why don’t you first fix that broken bone sticking out of my body and I will consider shedding some kilos, man. 

Mind you, obesity can be a problem that contributes to other ailments you might face but doctors have a habit of looking at you and chalking everything down to your weight. This leads to serious misdiagnosis, mostly amongst women. 

There are a million and one stories about women whose doctors ignored their PCOS because of their body weight. And this is not limited to India, BTW, before you all try to crucify me. This is a worldwide phenomenon. 

Bro, you are a doctor. Do your job. You sure as hell are paid a lot of it. If your patient thinks they have an ailment, just do some tests, diagnose what’s wrong with them, instead of fat shaming them. And no, you can’t just tell people with PCOS that they should lose weight to get better. You think they don’t know that? Everybody and their mother tells them that, pretty much every day. 

However, none of them has an MBBS degree and is capable of providing medicines and other solutions to their problems.

Sometimes, you will tell your doctor that maybe you are depressed and they will ask you, if you have tried losing weight! My mum could have told me that? Why did I come to you for help? Aren’t you a professional who is supposed to be good at this? 

Actually, we don’t have to go that far away from home to see the fatal consequences of fatshaming doctors. 

Just a few weeks ago, actress Chethana Raj passed away from a fat removal surgery. According to reports, her father Varadaraju has alleged that she was brainwashed by the doctor into getting the procedure. 

Take a look at this case if you have trouble believing doctors misdiagnose ‘fat’ people. 

Rebecca Hiles came down with bronchitis and walking pneumonia at the age of 17. Even 3 years after that, doctors kept telling her if she lost some weight, she wouldn’t be coughing as much. This continued till she was 23 and kept getting worse. Surprise surprise, it was years before another doctor took her seriously, did some tests and found out that she had cancer. 

Hiles had to have her entire left lung removed, which could have been saved had she been diagnosed at 17, the first time she went to a doctor. 

There are. thousands of cases like these all over the world. If it were literally any other profession, we would be up in arms against them. But sadly, it isn’t. And because primarily women are affected by it, we have just let it slide just as we used to call every problem women faced, hysteria for the longest time. 

Doctors need to do better. A person’s weight might affect their health but it isn’t the only thing that does. And that’s where doctors come in, with their expertise, their years of education and their medicines. If only most of them could muster up some apathy, the world would be far safer place for everyone.