When physician Fatima Cody Stanford first moved to the Boston area, she would ride the train every morning to get to work, and every morning the same conductor would be working on her train. A few years later, that conductor stepped into her office for an appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she specializes in obesity medicine. The man, in his 40s, brought his mother with him so she could help back him up if he needed to convince his doctor that he is active and healthy. When Stanford recognized him from her commute and greeted him warmly, his mother began crying, and told her that she was the first doctor he ever had who didn’t promptly assume he was living a horrible or unhealthy lifestyle.
According to Stanford, this is a common experience for her. Many of her patients, when she starts working with them, feel the need to justify themselves and their weight to her when they first begin treatment. Many have negative past experiences with physicians who make assumptions about their health and their medical history based on their weight, and as a result, they are highly wary of how they are treated in healthcare spaces.
“When patients have obesity, they come into an environment that's often not supportive of their disease process,” Stanford says. “A lot of it is that many doctors and other health care providers, really have yet to really embrace obesity for the disease that it is. And with that comes a lot of blaming and shaming, assuming that the patient is not telling the truth, assuming that the patient is not compliant with different recommendations that have been provided.”
Weight stigma, the discrimination or bias against people who are overweight or have obesity, is a serious issue that can heavily impact the mental or physical health of those who experience it. The issue manifests itself in many aspects of society, such as media, interpersonal relationships and employment. But its consequences are especially pronounced when experienced in medical settings. It can greatly impact the quality of care that people receive, even from physicians who mean well.
