I've been thinking about this a lot and have debated voicing my concerns in a public forum. I don't want to add to the stigma and shame that some post-WLS folks experience, yet I think it's important to highlight this issue.
Over the years, I've had several friends and acquaintances undergo WLS, usually gastric bypass. I always express to them my strong reservations about the possible long-term consequences of this decision, but I also believe that people are the boss of their own lives and it's not my job to police their choices. They are adults and they get to make their own life decisions, whether or not it's a choice I would make for my own life.
I try to be supportive of them afterwards without being judgmental, although it's not easy sometimes because I am not a fan of WLS. Still, they are my friends and I want the best for them, so I try to be as supportive as I can.
But it's been striking to me how often WLS folks follow a social pattern of increasing isolation afterwards. Many times they drop out of groups they previously frequented, away from previous friends, and become more and more isolated socially.
Let's be honest. The initial weight loss after WLS is often truly amazing, and they celebrate and advertise every second of that honeymoon broadly to the world. I don't blame them; that honeymoon period is pretty intoxicating. Anyone who has ever had a significant weight loss has felt it, and the weight loss after WLS is particularly jaw-dropping and probably rather exhilarating.
After a post-op adjustment period they often feel wonderful, they revel in their ability to buy new clothes, everyone congratulates them on how great they look, life is great, and they usually talk loud and long about how wonderful WLS is to anyone who will listen.
But after several years, things aren't always so great. Nutritional deficiencies begin to show up, especially for those with gastric bypass or other malabsorption procedures. Complications start to pile up. Anemia is a frequent companion for many, and often doesn't respond very easily to treatment. I've seen a number with headaches, gut issues, hypoglycemia episodes, hernias, seizures, broken bones, osteoporosis, additional surgeries, chronic pain, really serious eating-disordered behaviors, and addiction issues.
This post-WLS complications part is not so great, but it often gets hidden or shrugged off as unimportant compared to the importance of "getting healthy." (My response: How "healthy" are you really if you are dealing with health issues like these?)
A significant amount of weight is regained by many as the body adjusts and begins to get more efficient at absorbing calories again. But now the self-condemnation is even worse than before. Individuals often feel terribly guilty, ashamed and blame themselves for the regain.
Some start to indulge in weight loss extremism. Often they get back on the weight yo-yo rollercoaster, but this time with even more self-blame, more extreme diets, and more extremes of highs and lows in their weight trajectory. Some resort to even more extreme weight loss surgery procedures with truly scary side effects in order to "fix" the regained weight.
The way some of them talk about themselves is really sad; the self-condemnation and self-recriminations can be brutal. (To be fair....not all of them; some seem to do fine, both physically and emotionally.) But some of the self-loathing talk I've seen on WLS support groups and blogs is very distressing; it sure doesn't sound like emotionally healthy self-love or improved self-esteem.
Worse, some just start dropping out of life. They stop associating with people they hung out with before. They tend to start hibernating or withdrawing socially, or seeking new groups to be with. And they often stop going to WLS support groups, stop seeing their WLS doctors, or stop participating in post-WLS research studies. (The number of drop-outs in WLS studies is really high, which is why you have to apply a lot of skepticism to many of the glowing research findings from them.)
This doesn't happen with everyone who has had WLS, of course. Some stick around and don't drop out socially at all. Some do great long-term, and even maintain the weight loss reasonably well. It's important not to exaggerate the problem....but I do see quite a few drop-outs happen.
And I especially see that post-WLS folks often stop associating with other fat people.
There could be a number of reasons for this. Some folks with WLS no longer want to hang out with fat people who haven't had the surgery; either they no longer identify with us, or they prefer to actively disassociate themselves with fat folk, as if we somehow might re-infect them with fatness via "bad" habits or a lack of all-consuming focus on weight loss. Perhaps they simply don't feel they have much in common with us any longer, or are tired of what they perceive to be the "excuses" they think we make around our fatness. Fair enough, I guess, though obviously I don't care for this reasoning.
Some fear the condemnation and "I told you so" attitudes of some people in the Fat-Acceptance (FA) community if their WLS has bad side-effects or if they end up with significant weight re-gain. We all know how hard it is to face people again when you've lost a lot of weight and then regained it eventually; how much harder must it be for those who went to the extremes of having WLS to face fat-acceptance friends after a regain. And to be fair, some FA folks are pretty unkind to folks who have had WLS. But even when we are welcoming and non-judgmental to WLS folks, they often avoid us.
In addition, shame at having regained substantial amounts of weight or experiencing negative health complications lead many WLS patients to drop contacts within the WLS community, the very people who should understand the most. Judgment within the WLS community can be EXTREMELY harsh towards those who don't act as relentlessly positive cheerleaders for the surgery and for weight loss. This turning on their own is a hushed-up secret in the WLS community, and the condemnation of formerly-supportive folks especially bitter to WLS survivors with substantial regain or side effects.
So many people who have had WLS find themselves increasingly isolated. They don't feel comfortable or welcome in fat-acceptance groups, they don't feel welcome in WLS groups if they've regained weight or had complications, and they've often isolated themselves from the friends and family they hung out with previously.
There can be other reasons for dropping out socially too. Some are embarrassed at the gastric side effects (like vomiting, gas, or fecal incontinence) that can go along with the surgery. They may stop participating in activities because they are afraid of embarrassing themselves at social events or because there aren't bathrooms close enough for them to feel confident about going somewhere. Or they develop side effects (like hypoglycemic seizures or extreme fatigue) that make it hard for them to get out on their own. Or they don't always feel well enough to get out much because of the anemia or the other nutritional deficiencies.
No, I won't tell any stories here of friends of mine who have had WLS and dropped out. Their stories are their own, and I care for them too much to dissect their stories here. But I think a non-identifying story about a casual acquaintance might be illustrative.
I went to a number of NAAFA conferences over the years. I remember one where I met a woman who was a few months post-op from gastric bypass, but her wound hadn't healed. She was very pro FA but just felt she had too many health concerns not to consider the surgery. So she tried to bridge both worlds but was understandably nervous about coming back to a NAAFA conference after having had the surgery.
I could empathize with her reasons for the surgery, even if I didn't agree with the decision, and wanted to make sure she still felt welcomed and valued. So we hung around together that conference. I enjoyed her company. I helped her pack her infected wound and helped with some of her needed self-care. We talked a lot about why she did the surgery and the pros and cons of it. It wasn't a decision I would have made, but I could understand her choice. I wished her only the best when we parted.
I saw her again the next year. She was very honest about how bad some of the G.I. effects can be. She said she'd heard of some WLS folks who were fired from their jobs or asked to leave their apartment complexes because of the smell from the G.I. issues. She spoke about the folks who experienced unpredictable soiling of themselves and began curtailing their activities as a result. Or who couldn't cope with the unexpected and violent vomiting that can occur without much warning.
She seemed okay, on the whole. She had severe issues with anemia that didn't respond well to treatment, and she'd been doing some IV iron treatments to help. She had some of the nasty G.I. side effects but was still employed and still coping. Again, I wished her well when we parted.
However, I never saw her again at any NAAFA conference. Perhaps she returned in a year that I didn't, but I never saw her in any of the conference photos online. There were no obituaries posted or anything, she just dropped off the social radar. Maybe she lost lots of weight and felt she didn't have anything in common with NAAFA folks anymore, maybe she felt too judged by some folks at the conference, or maybe she just didn't have the money to come anymore; who knows? But I know I was troubled at how she dropped off the social radar.
I've seen this happen with dear friends and acquaintances in the birth world too. They have WLS, stick around for a while, but after a few years no longer frequent the same groups, even though these are birth groups and not FA groups.
I don't know why many of my acquaintances who got WLS have dropped out of touch. It might be just moving on with life and having new interests. It might be not wanting to be around people who remind them of what they used to be like. It might be shame over weight regain. It might be embarrassment over G.I. side effects. It might be having to deal with medical complications like anemia or seizures. It could simply be coincidence, but I doubt it.
Whatever it is, I am deeply troubled and saddened by my observation of how many WLS patients drop out of touch over time. And I was reminded of that again when I came across the study below on PubMed.
The pressure on WLS folks to only talk about the good, not the bad, and the shame they feel if they experience regain only makes it harder for these folks to find their way to a happy, balanced life. As one blogger writes:
There seems a conspiracy of silence among patients as well as providers. Patients who regain and live are reluctant to tell about their surgeries because both the public and their doctors blame them for their gain. Patients who have become ill from the surgery and live long enough to be reversed and get back normal digestion are often reluctant to talk about their bad experiences because new ops and providers can get mean to those who talk too negatively about weight loss surgery.
Patients are so sold on this surgery that until they get really ill, they refuse to admit that it has a high complication rate and a higher recidivism rate...Even successful patients who have suffered difficult complications and talk about them in blogs have taken a lot of criticism from "the community".We need less silence from the WLS folks, whatever their experience.
We need less silencing and shaming in the WLS community towards those WLS folks who have complications or regain. And we need more empathy from the FA community towards folks who have had WLS, whatever their experiences; they are likely still going to be fat to some degree and still deserve support for their experiences, whatever they are.
We want WLS folks to stick around in our lives, whatever their weight is, and whether they are "successful" or not. Our love for them should have nothing to do with whether or not they are fat or skinny, whether they've maintained a loss, whether they've lost and regained, whether they have complications, or whether they are the poster person for the benefits of WLS. Whoever they are, whatever they look like, whatever they weigh, we love them and we value them and we don't want to lose touch with them.
If you've had WLS, don't disappear, don't hide, don't be silenced. Speak out and stay in touch. We love and value you and want you in our lives.
*Do you know of other good support groups or blogs for WLS survivors who have experienced complications or regain and need to talk about this openly? Feel free to post your suggestions in the comments.
** Comments are welcome but please recognize the mission of this blog when commenting. Hate speech and pro-diet talk is not appropriate here and will not be published. If you are pro-WLS, there are plenty of other venues for sharing that view; this is not the place to promote it. However, if you wish to discuss the specific issues discussed in the post, you are welcome to do so as long as your comments are in the spirit of the blog and its mission.
Reference
Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2010 Nov 18;5(4). doi: 10.3402/qhw.v5i4.5553. "My quality of life is worse compared to my earlier life": Living with chronic problems after weight loss surgery. Groven KS, Råheim M, Engelsrud G. PMID: 21103070
Weight loss surgery is commonly regarded as improving individuals' health and social life, and resulting in a happier and more active life for those defined as "morbidly obese." However, some researchers have started to doubt whether these positive outcomes apply to everyone and this article explores this doubt further. More specifically, we focus on the experiences of women whose life situation became worse after weight loss surgery. The material draws on qualitative interviews of five Norwegian women undergoing the irreversible gastric bypass procedure. Our findings illustrate that the women lived seemingly "normal" lives prior to the surgery with few signs of illness. Worries about future illness as well as social stigma because of their body shape motivated them to undergo weight loss surgery. After the surgery, however, their situation was profoundly changed and their lives were dramatically restricted. Chronic pain, loss of energy, as well as feelings of shame and failure for having these problems not only limited their social lives but it also made them less physically active. In addition, they had difficulties taking care of their children, and functioning satisfactorily at work. Accordingly, the women gradually felt more "disabled," regarding themselves as "outsiders" whose problems needed to be kept private. The results highlight some "subtle" consequences of weight loss surgery, particularly the shame and stigma experienced by those whose lives became dramatically worse. Living in a society where negative impacts of weight loss surgery are more or less neglected in research as well as in the public debate the women seemed to suffer in silence. Their problems were clearly present and felt in the body but not talked about and shared with others.Resources
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