Going to the doctor has always been a scary thing. Remember being a little kid and your big brother teasing you about the “giant” needle that awaited you. No wonder, even as adults, most of us still dread a trip to the doctor’s office. And now, we don’t even get a lollypop.

Ultimately, you are responsible for your health and your health care. So it is important to make informed choices. It is important to have a relationship with a doctor and the doctor’s staff before you need a doctor. Almost all health plans will allow you to choose one of their doctors, so you do have options. Managing your health requires an active partnership between you and your healthcare provider.

Choosing the Doctor

It is important to feel comfortable with your healthcare provider. This is the person with whom you will share intimate details about your life: lifestyle habits, sexual activity, and emotional well-being. You will be at your most vulnerable. You must be able to trust this person. That will not be possible, if you sense an anti-fat bias from your physician.

If you don’t have a primary healthcare provider or are not happy with the current one, you may consider a “Bear Friendly Health Professional.” Start by asking around for a recommendation from folks within the community. If that is not an option, type ““Fat Friendly Health Professional’ into your favorite search engine. There are many websites that publish lists of such professionals. These are very useful, and are normally broken down by geographic region. If you are unable to locate a doctor in your area (or on your health plan), try posting on a bear-friendly message board for a recommendation.

Before You Go

Call the doctor’s office and talk to someone about interviewing the doctor. Explain that you are looking for a doctor and have your questions written down. Understand that you may not get your questions answered right away, so ask when you can expect the call to be returned. Identify yourself as fat and ask how the doctor feels about caring for fat patients.

Trust your instincts. If you don’t get a good response and/or don’t like what you hear, keep looking. It is about building doctor-patient trust. Patients must be able to trust their doctors with their lives and well-being. Trust is a central element in the doctor-patient relationship and the trust that patient has in his or her doctor to act in their best interest contributes to the effectiveness of medical care. For example, a study of doctors and patients in the US and New Zealand showed that most patients who reported that they were confident in physicians kept their appointments and followed their course of treatment, while those who reported less confidence did not.

The Doctor’s Scale

Do not assume that you have to be weighed by the nurse. If the doctor convinces you that it is important, you can ask to weigh yourself and report the number. Chances are there is no need to weigh you. Some medicine doses are weight dependent, but most are not.

Weight issues

Being bear-sized, it is inevitable that your doctor will tell you to lose weight. Don’t simply accept this; it is too easy to blame your weight. It’s important for your doctor to differentiate whether your health problem is weight related or not.. Question whether the diagnosis of weight loss is related to the current symptoms or a knee jerk reaction. If I go to the doctor with a hang nail and he suggests losing weight as a course of treatment, I am going to question what one has to do with the other. Obviously, this is an over simplification, but you get my point.

Trust is the firm belief that a person or a thing can be relied on. Finding a healthcare provider is about trust. You must be able to trust they will see you as a person seeking medical guidance, not just a fat patient. Remember, your healthcare provider is your confidante. If you don’t feel comfortable with a practitioner, you won’t return for follow up or follow their course of treatment. You deserve better.

Fat Friendly Health Professionals List - AU

http://www.crashingsilence.net/fatfriendlydoctors.html

Fat Friendly Health Professionals List - US

http://www.cat-and-dragon.com/stef/fat/ffp.html