#are weight loss medications covered by insurance

[productview]

Weight Loss Medication Covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield: Everything You Need to Know

Are you wondering if your Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance covers weight loss medication? Learn about the coverage options, eligibility criteria, and important considerations for getting weight loss medication covered. Introduction: Weight Loss Medication Covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield Weight Loss Medication Covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield When it comes to shedding those extra pounds, having…

[goldyke]

LAP Bands should be illegal

This post is going to deal with medical fatphobia, weight loss surgery, coercion, emetophobia, food issues, disordered eating, and just all around bad shit. But it’s important.

Shortly after I reached adulthood, I was coerced into weight loss surgery. I weighed about 250 pounds and was considered morbidly obese.

The Lap Band is a disgrace to the medical profession and is just another example of how the medical profession does not care about the lives of fat people.

To preface this: the surgery works. I lost 70 pounds and people treated me differently and I hated them all for it.

The Lap Band made my life miserable. When it was filled, I could not eat until noon without getting stuck. Even then, getting stuck was always a risk. There was a strict diet to follow and you were supposed to be safe from that if you followed it. On top of that, there were rules for how you ate. One standard I saw was not to eat in bites larger than your fingernail. Can you see yourself doing that for a week, let alone years and years?

Getting stuck is a horror you can't imagine. The food lodges in the top of your stomach, blocking off your system. You continue to produce saliva and swallow it down. Slowly, the mucous in your saliva builds up. It feels like you're drowning. Eventually, you have to essentially throw it all up. A disgusting experience (and a mortifying one if you're in public.) The saliva is thick and ropy. This experience is often called "sliming" on the forums.

I became frightened of eating in public. In a way, I became frightened of food altogether. I knew something had to give the day I reacted to someone biting a hamburger in a tv show the way a regular person would react to a killer jumping out in a horror movie. I developed the disgusting and unhealthy habit of chewing and spitting out food. I completely lost my enjoyment of many foods I had previously enjoyed because of how problematic they were (I can no longer enjoy a chicken thigh for example.) I stopped eating meals and began grazing. I developed eating habits worse than the ones that "made me fat"

After 3 years, I had the band emptied of fluid, which significantly decreased, but did not stop, these problems. I regained the weight, and found it didn't bother me. (Along the way I discovered that my discomfort with my body had never been weight related)

I had my band removed after 6.5 years earlier this year. I am in a support group on facebook for victims of this malpractice. There are 5.6 thousand members, each with their own horror stories. Some of them cannot get the band removed because insurance will not cover the procedure, though they happily covered the band's placement. Some have tried to go through with removal but have had surgeons try to coerce them into getting a different weight-loss surgery instead of just removing it. Many have long-term damage from the band eroding the walls of their stomach or esophagus, or from the band adhering to multiple organs. Many of them had the band for 12-14 years, before removal because none of our doctors told us it needs to be removed within 10.

Many practices no longer perform Lap Band surgery and now believe it is unethical. The surgeon who removed my band still performs this surgery regularly.

A study performed in 2011 with 151 lap band patients, found that 22% of patients experienced minor complications and 39% experienced major complications. The person who coerced me into surgery actually experienced major complications and needed an emergency removal.

I experienced no serious complications. Everything I described above is considered normal. And It still drastically lowered my quality of life.

I don't know why I'm sharing this or who I'm sharing it for, but here I am. If you know anyone considering the lap band surgery, don't let them go through with it without knowing the truth. And please be kinder to your body than the medical profession wants you to be.

[scientia-rex]

Because my most popular post is about weight loss and how it's a crock, I get a lot of questions about various things, including bariatric surgery--just posted the link to the post I did about that--but also Ozempic/Wegovy, the once-weekly injectable semaglutide medication that was developed for diabetes but was found to have independent benefits on weight loss.

I always said that weight loss was like Viagra: when a medication came along that actually worked, it would explode. We'd all hear about it. Fen-phen in the 90s worked, but it was bad for your heart. Stimulants, like meth, may cause weight loss, but they do it at the cost of heart health, and raise your likelihood of dying young. Over the counter weight loss supplements often contain illegal and unlisted thyroid hormone, which is also dangerous for the heart if taken in the absence of a real deficiency. Orlistat, or "Alli," works the same way as the Olestra chips Lays made in the 1990s--it shuts off your ability to digest fats, and the problem with that is that fats irritate the gut, so then you end up with fatty diarrhea and probably sharts. Plus Alli only leads to 8-10lbs of weight loss in the best case scenario, and most people are not willing to endure sharts for the sake of 8lbs.

And then came the GLP-1 agonists. GLP stands for glucagon-like peptide. Your body uses insulin to make cells uptake sugar. You can't just have free-floating sugar and use it, it has to go into the cells to be used. So if your body sucks at moving sugar into the cells, you end up with a bunch of glucose hanging out in places where it shouldn't be, depositing on small vessels, damaging nerves and your retinas and kidneys and everywhere else that has a whole lot of sensitive small blood vessels, like your brain.

Glucagon makes your liver break down stored sugars and release them. You can think of it as part of insulin's supporting cast. If your body needs sugar and you aren't eating it, you aren't going to die of hypoglycemia, unless you've got some rare genetic conditions--your liver is going to go, whoops, here you go! and cough it up.

But glucagon-like peptide doesn't act quite the same way. What glucagon-like peptide does is actually stimulating your body to release insulin. It inhibits glucagon secretion. It says, we're okay, we're full, we just ate, we don't need more glucagon right now.

This has been enough for many people to both improve blood sugar and cause weight loss. Some patients find they think about food less, which can be a blessing if you have an abnormally active hunger drive, or if you have or had an eating disorder.

However, every patient I've started on semaglutide in any form (Ozempic, Wegovy, or Rybelsus) has had nausea to start with, probably because it slows the rate of stomach emptying. And that nausea sometimes improves, and sometimes it doesn't. There's some reports out now of possible gastroparesis associated with it, which is where the stomach just stops contracting in a way that lets it empty normally into the small intestine. That may not sound like a big deal, but it's a lifelong ticket to abdominal pain and nausea and vomiting, and we are not good at treating it. We're talking Reglan, a sedating anti-nausea but pro-motility agent, which makes many of my patients too sleepy to function, or a gastric pacemaker, which is a relatively new surgery. You can also try a macrolide antibiotic, like erythromycin, but I have had almost no success in getting insurance to cover those and also they have their own significant side effects.

Rapid weight loss from any cause, whether illness, medication, or surgery, comes with problems. Your skin is not able to contract quickly. It probably will, over long periods of time, but "Ozempic face" and "Ozempic butt" are not what people who want to lose weight are looking for. Your vision of your ideal body does not include loose, excess skin.

The data are also pretty clear that you can't "kick start" weight loss with Ozempic and then maintain it with behavioral mechanisms. If you want to maintain the weight loss, you need to stay on the medication. A dose that is high enough to cause weight loss is significantly higher than the minimum dose where we see improvements in blood sugar, and with a higher dose comes higher risk of side effects.

I would wait on semaglutide. I would wait because it's been out for a couple of years now but with the current explosion in popularity we're going to see more nuanced data on side effects emerging. When you go from Phase III human trials to actual use in the world, you get thousands or millions more data points, and rare side effects that weren't seen in the small human trials become apparent. It's why I always say my favorite things for a drug to be are old, safe, and cheap.

I also suspect the oral form, Rybelsus, is going to get more popular and be refined in some way. It's currently prohibitively expensive--all of these are; we're talking 1200 or so bucks a month before insurance, and insurance coverage varies widely. I have patients who pay anything from zero to thirty to three hundred bucks a month for injectable semaglutide. I don't think I currently have anyone whose insurance covers Rybelsus who could also tolerate the nausea. My panel right now is about a thousand patients.

There are also other GLP-1 agonists. Victoza, a twice-daily injection, and Trulicity, and anything else that ends in "-aglutide". But those aren't as popular, despite being cheaper, and they aren't specifically approved for weight loss.

Mounjaro is a newer one, tirzepatide, that acts on two receptors rather than one. In addition to stimulating GLP-1 receptors, it also stimulates glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptors. It may work better; I'm not sure whether that's going to come with a concomitantly increased risk of side effects. It's still only approved for diabetes treatment, but I suspect that will change soon and I suspect we'll see a lot of cross-over in terms of using it to treat obesity.

I don't think these medications are going away. I also don't think they're right for everyone. They can reactivate medullary thyroid carcinoma; they can fuck up digestion; they may lead to decreased quality of life. So while there may be people who do well with them, it is okay if those people are not you. You do not owe being thin to anyone. You most certainly do not owe being thin to the extent that you should risk your health for it. Being thin makes navigating a deeply fat-hating world easier, in many ways, so I never blame anyone for wanting to be thin; I just want to emphasize that it is okay if you stay fat forever.

[winterfergerart]

So I'm gonna make a personal kind of post here. TW for death in the family and my own post-covid symptoms.

Last year my grandfather died. He was the man who raised me, so he was more like a father than a grandfather. As he was getting close to death I was asking my family if there was going to be an inheritance which, I specifically said at the time, I need to know so that I can know what to do about my SSI disability and plan ahead.

People just said I'd get a 'tidy sum' or 'deferred comp' at best. No steady numbers. So without knowing what I'd be getting I had no way to prepare. I think they just thought I was being greedy and wanted to know selfishly. Not that I needed regular medical coverage.

He died without having said anything about being proud of me, but the family found a box of all my pictures growing up in his closet. Other people too, but mostly me, and I didn't know what to do with that because he never really said that he was proud of me or anything.

Because of that his death hit me really hard. Like, the entire span of his slow decline, from the year before to the day he died, I kind of withdrew from a bunch of my friends. Years ago someone put it in my head that wanting help when you're troubled is manipulative so I took it to heart. I pulled away from a bunch of people that made me happy because I didn't want to stress them out with my problems. I pulled back from my hobbies 'cause I didn't trust myself to engage anymore. I was hurting too much.

After he passed, other than a few people, I was all alone.

I received notification concerning my inheritance in December and I filled out the paperwork in early January, specifically requesting that I be given some time to prepare before receiving payments. They didn't listen. So I had to get off SSI, lost my insurance, had to loosely plan to buy some. It's not a lot of money, but it is too much to recieve public assistance.

But I thought, maybe I can do something that makes me less dependent on the government now. I can get married. Maybe I can go back to school. Maybe I can start a small jewelry and miniatures business. Maybe I can invest. Maybe I can start volunteering at domestic violence shelters.

Then two months ago, I caught Covid for the first time in 4 years.

The S.O.? Oh he was fine. It seemed like a bad cold. But me, first it was the fever, and then my lungs deteriorated for two weeks. Doctor round one? "It's a Covid cough, it's expected." Doctor round two? "Yeah, Covid cough can go on for a while. Here's sudafed and cough pills."

It took my blood oxygen to drop into dangerous levels (90%) for anyone to take me seriously. And despite that doctor trying so hard and giving me great meds, I just had a massive relapse and today I'm struggling to breathe again. I'm sitting here crying and coughing up chunks of god knows what. All this being paid out of pocket, because I don't have insurance and no one listened to me. About the inheritance, about the deferred comp, about the insurance, about how badly my lungs were doing post-Covid.

I had been exercising every single day for two years. I was actually starting to lose weight. I was so proud of myself. Now that's all been set back. I was gonna get married. But SSI is holding me in this sort of limbo where I'm not covered but I'm also not free.

I miss my support system. I've loosely tried to reach out but I've not been very good at it because I always sucked at social anyway. I'm sorry that I threw it away while it felt like I could only radiate badness and loss. If any of you are still out there I miss you and I'm sorry I abandoned you. I thought I was doing us both favors and we'd be better off without each other. So I'm throwing it out there that either I'd love to hear from you again, if you're still watching this account, or please just know I'm sorry I let you down.

PS. I don't want money. I just want to see a bright spot again when every time I get ahead I get knocked back.

[appalachiananarchist]

I am going to need the cardiologists to stop sending me a bunch of patients to "get on ozempic" when their insurances won't cover weight loss medication. I am hanging on by a thread here as is, and I don't have time to explain to dozens of angry people via MyChart messages that I cannot force insurance to pay for Ozempic if they are not diabetic, and submitting a new PA is not going to change anything.

[genderkoolaid]

I'm interested in what others think of this video.

On one hand, it discusses fatphobia in a very easy-to-understand manner. It covers the racist, eugenicist, unscientific history of BMI, how it was used by insurance companies, the construction of the obesity epidemic using poor science, talks a good bit about men with eating disorders, calls out the "calories in calories out" model as well as the individualization of health rather than looking at systemic issues, and talks about anti-fat bias as a fact which harms people.

But on the other hand... I was disappointed by how lukewarm it felt. Like, the bring up that the deaths attributed to obesity were grossly inflated, and that doctors are negatively biased against fat patients... but they never connect the two? Like, they never say "hey, maybe the reason why fat people have poor health is in part because doctors are killing them via gross medical neglect"? Or questioning what exactly is counted as a "death from obesity"? Instead, they kind of say "the obesity epidemic is inflated, and might not be an epidemic, but also we aren't saying for sure its not a problem at all."

And they also never bring up the science of diets & how they don't work! They discuss diet culture and are very critical of diets, but they don't discuss how diets have been shown to fail by many studies. And they also don't bring up Health At Any Size & how that tactic has been shown to improve health regardless of whether or not there's weight loss. Their advice for how to deal with this problem is basically "don't fatshame people," which isn't wrong but its also doesn't really encourage people to confront internalized & systemic fatphobia on a meaningful level. I don't think they ever say the word "fatphobia."

Its just... disappointing! Like on one hand, you could say this video is good as an introduction into how the fatphobia industry has been built for people who have very little knowledge on it and are resistant to anti-diet culture ideas. On the other hand, its annoying that even leftist media is still so hesitant to actually engage with more radical fat liberation- most people don't even know that its been a movement since the 1960s. It just feels like a missed opportunity. It feels like the left is stuck at "don't be mean to fat people!" and refuses to move on to more radical notions of fat people as an oppressed class.

@fatphobiabusters do you have any thoughts on this?

[monstersinthecosmos]

can i vent about the healthcare system lol

This year I have health insurance for the first time since I was a child and when I tell you it sucks, I hate this, I hate participating in this system, I miss when I was just in pain all the time and didn't even bother going to the doctor bc I didn't have insurance anyway, I don't love this system where I read my insurance policy and think something is covered and then it isn't except maybe it is and maybe it got processed by a bot and I have to call the insurance to dispute but then I have to call my doctor to dispute and then I have to call the insurance back to dispute like, guys I have phone anxiety I'm gonna just pay you all this money instead of making phone calls I guess.

i have nerve damage and my treatment options so far are a $1,300 shot that might not actually help and I'll have to get another one in a few months anyway or I can go to physical therapy where they want to see me 2x a week for $250 per session. My insurance only covers a certain number of sessions and even if I did go to all of them, I still wouldn't hit my deductible. The PT place has a financial assistance program but it's only for people who have hit their deductible. (What's the point lol).

I'm also at a dead end trying to get diagnosed & treated for hypothyroidism because "weight gain" is listed as a symptom and BCBS says they don't cover "weight loss" treatment even though that wasn't what the fuck I asked and I was more concerned that my hair is falling out and I'm freezing all the time. Like where does it end, every time a symptom of something includes weight gain. What if a skinny person has it. Is this discriminatory? Is it a coding error? Will I pay the $215 I got charged for having my thyroid tested and simply not continue treating it now, because I don't have the constitution to make 100 phone calls and argue with people? lol.

the spine specialist orders an MRI and says I'm too young to have surgery so I should just do pain management. the pain management doctor tells me to lose weight. (it's hard, because, I think my thyroid doesn't work.) he says lyrica might help with my nerve pain but it causes weight gain so he advises against it. i wonder at what point does BCBS decide that spine & nerve pain is because I'm fat and won't help me anymore because it's weight loss related.

And let's not talk about how I was like, you know what, I would rather just build up some medical debt and pay it off slowly because I'm terrified that I'm going to have permanent nerve damage, and I applied for financial assistance with the hospital, and they approved me, but they don't help for any bills which are under $2000. So my $900 MRI or my $400 nerve test or my $1300 shot are not eligible for financial assistance, even though my hospital balance would be over $2000. I go to set up a payment plan and it won't let me set the number I can afford. I manually enter a bit at a time and they won't stop emailing me that I owe them money because I didn't use the official interface for a payment plan. I call their financial assistance to ask why they didn't adjust my MRI bill, they tell me because it's under $2000, I get so overwhelmed and start crying on the phone like an asshole so I hang up before I remember to ask about adjusting the payment plan.

like is better that I'm now $1300 in the hole for tests that told me I have nerve damage and arthritis and disc degeneration when I can't afford any of the treatments? Is it better to at least know? But what's the point if I can't do anything about it anyway except YouTube yoga and Aleve for breakfast, which I was doing anyway when I was uninsured. Thanks, now I know! I cannot feel my leg! Pray for me that I don't wind up paralyzed from ignoring it!

(I think part of me committed to these tests because I was like, well, if there's NO damage I will know and I can stop worrying, but there is damage, so now idk how to feel.)

anyway it's just. I've always known this system was garbage from the outside when like, I've spent years having to treat things by myself at home, I've had so many times where I didn't go to the ER when I probably should've, I've passed on really fun outings with my friends like snowboarding or roller derby because I'm too scared I'll get injured, my mental health is at all times hanging on by a thread because I can't get medicated (put a pin in this one bc I finally got an appointment for an evaluation but my insurance doesn't cover most of the meds LOL). It already sucked on the outside and was already a huge embarrassment to me as an American but like. I finally have insurance and it wasn't' even worth it.

and like. there's stuff I can afford. I'm making better money than I did in my 20s. Like, okay, it sucks but I can pay $215 for my thyroid test at the end of the day. But I don't want to. It sucks and it's not fair. I shouldn't have to. And like it's $215 now and then how much later. It's not sustainable at all. And if there's a way for them to cover it and not discriminate against me for being fat, it's behind so many barriers of me trying not to cry my eyes out on the phone and tbh I don't see it happening LOL.

but elon is on track to become the first trillionaire and our taxes are bombing children in tents, cool cool cool

I just don't understand who the fuck this is even for. WHO is out there with $2,000 to drop every month on physical therapy. Who is this for!!! WHO IS IT FOR!!!!

[twilightown]

I was doing really well. Eating healthy, eating more, moving with intention and 30 minutes of exercise daily. But I didn’t lose a pound. So I reached out and because of my Turner’s Syndrome and potential but not current heart issues, I got approved by my doctor for weight loss medication. Which isn’t easy.

My state won’t cover it on ANY insurance plan! So it’s $1400 out of pocket per month. I teach fifth grade here fam. I’m not someone who can do that. Why are you hurting consumers with a need instead of telling the corporations to fuck off with their price gouging?

I got so disheartened when my insurance wouldn’t let me get it. So disappointed. Literally was told it’s a waste of time to appeal it when I tried. Again, it’s a preventative for my heart. Not just weight loss. They are doubling down. I was working at the theater at the time too, so I broke my no soda streak and almost had it daily.

I’m getting back to my good habits with school starting but it’s still so unfair. I deserve the support my doctor approved for me. I’ve plateau’d at this weight for 4 years. I’ve been within 20 pounds of this for around 10.

[ivyshrinks]

semaglutide update: day 3

on tuesday, july 9, 2024, I took my first dose of compounded semaglutide! I had to go the compounded route because my insurance doesn't cover wegovy for weight loss, and I'm only pre-diabetic so I did not qualify for ozempic for diabetes. my compounded semaglutide costs $297/mo, which is expensive, but I'm willing to budget for it for the sake of my health.

I was nervous to give myself the injection since I don't like needles, but it was easy peasy - it didn't hurt at all as the needle went in!

since then, I haven't had any side effects, nor have I really felt any of the primary effects of the medication. I still have the "food noise" that people report losing on semaglutide, I still have an appetite, etc. I didn't necessarily expect the food noise or my appetite to disappear since it was only my first shot of the starting dose, and I won't be at the therapeutic dose for a couple of months; however, some people are "super responders" to the medication and report losing their appetite immediately, food noise disappearing immediately, etc., so part of me is a little disappointed that I didn't have that kind of immediate response to the medication.

I've been white-knuckling it for the past few days. I've been eating healthier, eating smaller portions, etc. - but like I said, I still have the food noise and a strong appetite, so it's been a little rough. I know this medication doesn't magically burn fat - I still have to put in the effort to lose weight through cico.

that being said, the morning I started semaglutide, I was 380.0 lbs. as of this morning, I was down to 375.2 lbs! nearly 5 lbs lost in three days! I'm going to keep working hard to lose this weight and keep taking this medication, and hopefully the effects of the medication will be noticeable soon!

today I have the day off work, and part of me would love to order doordash, but I want to lose a little bit more weight before I go to the doctors office for a weight check next tuesday, so I'm going to try to keep myself busy by cleaning the house.

[idledoll]

Let me tell you about some real insurance fuckery I'm going through right now

I have a condition called diabetes insipidus. Now, I know what you're thinking, but it's not that diabetes. Just trust me bro. Anyway.

There is precisely ONE DRUG in the history of the world that's ever been formulated to treat DI. Ever. Just the one. A synthetic version of the hormone my body doesn't make (again, not that hormone). And my insurance company in all it's fuckin wisdom has decided, after twenty years (nearly to the goddamn day) of me taking it that it doesn't want to cover it anymore because recently I went went from Regular State Medicare to Insurance Company Medicare and it's not on their approved list of drugs.

I applied for an exception because I will die a slow, miserable, dehydrated death without it. I just got the letter saying they denied the exception because they want me to try at least four other drugs on their formulary first. So, naturally, I just called them to be like, "THERE ARE NO OTHER DRUGS. THIS IS THE ONLY ONE GODDAMMIT."

(Except a lot nicer because this isn't the call center employee's fault)

The call center employee gave me a list of drugs that the insurance company insists are toooootally viable options for treating diabetes insipidus. They are as follows

A weight loss drug (what the fuck)

A drug that treats hypophosphatemia (???)

Not one, but TWO different growth hormone injection pens (WRONG. FUCKING. HORMONE)

And, finally, the nasal spray version of the medication I'm currently on, which, if you're a long time follower of my blog, you may have come across me complaining about my constant, chronic, severe nosebleeds every winter. That nose spray is why I have those nosebleeds even fifteen years after I stopped taking it.

For FUCK's sake.

[bunny-is-cute]

I’ve called three different doctor’s offices to get a appointment only to find out my work’s insurance no longer covers weight loss /diabetes medication 😭

[binariesarebullshit]

Not doing well y'all.

I hate that COVID has ruined any chance for me to have a normal life. I hate that I'm disabled, not because I hate my disability, but because insurance won't cover my medication! All wrapped up in fatphobia and abelism because my condition is rare [not really like 2 million people have it but the medical system ignores it], and I use it for off-label use that isn't for weight loss. $790-1434 per month isn't sustainable [I can't even get my doctor to give it to me without insurance]. If I survive a year, it will be a miracle, IMO.

What's wild is it's 100% covered for the main condition, and I'm at high risk of getting it! Fucking insurance companies playing doctor.

[abdomensect]

its so weird how the tra community will still be anti-cosmetic surgery like what??? that goes against your entire position

they'll be anti-rhinoplasty but think facial feminization surgery is medically necessary

no way they'd say it'd be reasonable for anorexics to be given liposuction or weight loss surgery, or people with body dysmorphia to get their chosen plastic surgery sponsored by a doctor, so why is their surgery healthy?

should people with body integrity identity disorder have their desire honored by doctors? if it's okay to remove organs & amputate body parts, why not people who feel uncomfortable with a limb?

i wanna kms because of my weight, should i be able to talk to a therapist for 1 appointment and get the fat sucked out and covered by insurance? or should I just accept my body? why can't you accept yours?

[zodiacsea]

the period of my adult life when i was thinnest was also the period i was unhappiest bc i was on appetite suppressants for all of my late teens and into my 20s (i stopped after i turned 21) and i was so moody and exhausted all the fucking time bc i couldn’t physically eat enough to fuel my body without feeling sick. i was Miserable. and STILL the doctor that prescribed them lectured me for not losing enough weight on them and not exercising enough, despite me not having the energy to exercise because i couldn’t eat. so i switched doctors and the new one did the same thing except with the added bonus of trying to sell me the diet she was being paid to sell with promises it would change my life. so i moved to another state and stopped taking my meds and my mother printed out and mailed me an entire diet plan just in case i wanted to try it. and this is just what i’m expected to live with and deal with forever because my body isn’t the size other people think it should be? i brought concern after concern to those doctors and they ignored them in favor of telling me to eat less and less. and even that was all in an attempt to prove to my insurance that i was responsible enough to lose weight so that they would cover bariatric surgery! for what reason? so i would be the size i was “supposed” to be? because weight loss may have “cured” the hormonal disorder i’ve had since i was a child that presents in “undesirable” intersex traits? the same disorder that makes the already herculean task of “losing weight” even harder? i was convinced by Medical Professionals that the only path to a fulfilling life was thinness and by extension was forced into misery in the pursuit of it. and it’s not! i’m fatter and happier now than i’ve ever been and i’m surrounded by people who love me and it’s fucking awesome. but i spent soooo many years convinced those things were incompatible and it sucks to look back on my teens and think abt how much time was lost to feeling Too Fat to live a full life. anyway that’s my rant for today

[salvadorbonaparte]

I’m not a doctor or nutritionist but I would take that previous anon’s opinions about losing weight with a grain of salt. Do what feels right for you. I don’t know your situation that well, but I follow you and I’m so sorry for all the struggles you’ve gone through in such a short amount of time ❤️

If you want to lose weight, maybe have a chat with your doctor (if that’s even an option. Depending on where you are, medical care can be prohibitively expensive) and see if they can recommend a weight loss plan that is safe for you.

I know there are definitely bad doctors out there but some rando on tumblr probably isn’t qualified to be giving out weight loss advice.

Thank you. I have another appointment with a different specialist next week and maybe they have any tips. Maybe my insurance covers seeing a nutrionist.

[sapphic-sexrets]

Sex is nearly impossible for me. I have crippling bottom dysphoria that prevents me from being able to masturbate or enjoy being intimate with my partner(s).

In order to get surgery I need to lose almost 100lbs.

But the impact the dysphoria has on my mental health makes it hard for me to diet and exercise.

My mental health is made worse bc I found out my insurance won't cover any type of weight loss procedure or medication.

I don't want to lose the weight, I love my body the way it is and the fact that I have to change myself just to get the care I need is keeping me in a near constant state of crisis.

If something doesn't change soon, I don't know what's going to happen