Hi there!
I am Doreen, forever East Frisian at heart, and yet Hamburg has been my adopted home for almost 15 years.
I was an active, sporty child who was fit from head to toe thanks to my ballet lessons. However, when I got my period at 13, I gained a whole 10 kg within six weeks without changing anything about my habits. And only from the hips down. My proportions were to remain like this until shortly after my 30th birthday: very slim at the top and the typical lipoedema figure at the bottom.
Unfortunately, absolutely no one around me took the fact that these proportions didn’t really match and that I was very quickly sure that something was wrong with my body seriously (“You’re slim…”, “There are women with proper thighs…”).
No matter what I did, my upper body responded to exercise and diet, but the rest of my body didn’t really. As I wasn’t sure that I had really given it my all (you do have doubts at one point or another…), I set myself a challenge and took €250 of my Christmas money and bought myself a 10-week online fitness program from Berlin and all the necessary equipment in December 2013. Those ten weeks at the beginning of 2014 were tough. I stuck to my plans and learned an incredible amount about nutrition, food, muscle building and cooking. And about my body – because something was really wrong with my lower body, which was clear to me when I looked in the mirror at the end of the 2.5 months (because as we all know, you can’t just lose weight in certain areas, it happens holistically in healthy people). After 70 days, my upper body was slimmer and more toned than ever before and my lower body simply hadn’t reacted visually, apart from an increase in strength.
My GP steadily upgraded my thyroid hormones, coupled with statements such as: “Now you will definitely lose some weight, don’t be surprised…”. Nothing happened. Of course, I had also tried all the dehydrating things, maybe it was water, I thought. Even my former gynecologist, who apparently performed aesthetic liposuction in the early 2000s, told me to eat less and exercise more. Glycemic index and all… I had soft skin and not such a pronounced typical lipoedema figure. She had no real idea about lipoedema, in my opinion. She simply ignored my pain. I didn’t have it from the start either, I didn’t actually get it until I was in my mid-20s.
Back to the sports program. In the meantime, I had found a sports group here in Hamburg with whom I met regularly at the gym and also at weekends – this has resulted in great friendships to this day. One young woman among them told me at a party that she suffered from lipo-lymphedema and when she heard my story, she could well imagine that I had at least once had lipedema. Lipo-what??? Her friend’s mother had had an operation with Dr. Heck-Kneissle and was very satisfied, so I could get in touch with her (at this point, a big THANK YOU to you, dear Jill! That evening with Sarah was the game changer for me – I finally knew that there was a disease and a name for my symptoms).
I’ll spare you the ordeal with uncomprehending and really cheeky doctors, tearful visits to the doctor, lack of understanding and rejections from the health insurance company, etc., which then took its course. Because you already know about this fat distribution disorder and are probably already thinking about having surgery. For me, the operations were one of the best decisions of my life and I would do each of them 100% again and again!
Why, why, why? I’d be happy to tell you if you’d like to talk to me. I’m sure I have an answer to almost all your questions and possible worries. 🙂
