Lipedema: Laura Larsson calls for more education about the disease

“You just do a little more sport and eat a little healthier and then your legs will be fine.”
Yes, I’ve heard that very, very often in the past and even more often have I done some questionable diets to change my body.
My name is Laura Larsson. I’m a radio host, podcaster and I do supposedly funny things on the internet. And: to be honest, my arms and legs are full of dents, bumps, countless small scars and sagging skin, because I suffer from lipoedema and had four surgeries a few years ago.
Lipoedema is a fat distribution disorder. This means that there is an increase in fat – often on the legs and hips and not infrequently on the arms – as with me. And yes, I know there are people who have it even worse. And between these fat cells there is accumulation of water, which can press so hard on the tissue that it really hurts.
In most cases, women are affected by the disease and not too few: in Germany there are around 3.8 million people, the number of unreported cases is even higher. Unfortunately, exercise and a healthy diet don’t get you very far with lipoedema.
As a rule, you can only get rid of this diseased fat through surgery – namely through a classic liposuction. It’s damn expensive and is rarely paid for by health insurance.
Only the conservative therapy is taken over: that means “lymphatic drainage” and wearing watch out: such dreamy pants here, these are compression pants that I wore. However, this does not make the lipoedema disappear, but relieves the symptoms.
But I wish that doctors would recognize this disease and, above all, take it seriously and that the private environment would also understand that sayings like: “You’re just too lazy to do sports” are really uncool and, especially mentally, really exhausting be able.