If Your OB/GYN Advertises Laser Fat Removal, Find A New One

When did OB/Gyns start advertising laser fat removal in their offices?

Do you have any idea how many women dread doctor appointments, simply because they know they will need to step on a scale? Scale dread is real. So is the dread that a doctor will shame you for your weight. The very last place a woman should be worried about being ‘shamed’ for anything is her doctor’s office. Doctors are meant to heal us. Provide health care. Provide medical advice. Not suggest cosmetic laser fat removal surgery.

That’s why this message Glennon Doyle shared on her Instagram account from her sister, Amanda Doyle, is so infuriating. Since when did Ob/Gyns start advertising cosmetic laser fat removal in their offices?

Doyle shared the text message she received from her sister, chronicling a recent trip to her gyno. “She took all her papers from the office too, and sent me a text with a pic of her files that said, ‘reclaiming my files,'” Glennon tells Scary Mommy.

“At OBGYN for annual exam,” the message reads. “Just made an announcement in front of a full waiting room saying I wasn’t going into my appointment and demanding my medical records to take to a new practice because of how absurdly offensive (dangerous) it is to have prenatal and postpartum women being assailed with this lose-belly-fat-quick-scheme at their freaking doctor’s office.”

She’s right. The very last thing a postpartum woman needs to be smacked in the face with when she goes to receive care is a ‘Sculpsure’ (laser fat removal) advertisement. Especially considering the propaganda on their Instagram page:

“Something old, something new, something skinny, that something could be you.”

Ew. Shut up. So the company isn’t limited to shaming women who’ve just birthed a human, they also target women preparing for their wedding day. Because of course love just isn’t the same if your dress is a little snug.

When Amanda took her complaints about the poster to her doctor, he said he’d “never thought of that” and that he’d take it down. “That’s good,” she replied. “I’m still leaving your practice. It’s literally your job to think about that. It’s the ‘first do no harm’ part.”

Glennon shared the encounter, and weighed in with some words of her own. “This is what everyday resistance to patriarchy looks like. It looks like paying attention — seeing the bullshit — and then being brave enough to call It out,” she writes. “It is not a woman’s job to become smaller and smaller — in ambition, imagination, voice, or BODY — so that the world can be more comfortable. Our bodies are not an industry for our economy to cash in on.”

THANK YOU. The last thing a postpartum woman, or any woman, should have to look at when she walks into a doctor’s office is this bullshit. Doctor’s offices are places for health care — not a blank canvas to advertise the work of the billion dollar diet/fat loss industry.

I’ve started telling nurses that they are welcome to weigh me, but that I don’t need them to tell me how much I weigh. I explain that I’m a recovering bulimic, that fretting about my weight is triggering, and that they can go ahead and write that number down instead of verbalizing it. They generally look confused, yet comply. I’m already going into appointments armed and ready to deal with this very touchy subject. A poster like this would completely push me over the edge.

Glennon nails it with her closing words: “Medical community — remove the patriarchal poison from your offices and concentrate on decent health care.”

Please and thank you.