153: Weight Stigma in Healthcare with Dr. Stephanie Hart

Thrive Beyond Size

CW: Talk about weight loss and experienced medical weight stigma, use of the terms obese and obesity

Welcome to today’s episode, everyone, where we address a topic that’s not easy for us to talk about. We’re talking about weight stigma in the healthcare system. Why does weight stigma exist in our healthcare system? How does it show up and who does it show up for? What are the side effects of this stigma on us as individuals but also as a society? To tackle these difficult questions, Dr. Stephanie Hart, a family physician who runs a niche practice in sexual medicine, has joined me to talk frankly about her own personal experiences as a fat patient inside the healthcare system. These experiences are what drew her to take a deeper interest in medical weight stigma and how to combat it at an educational level.

Stephanie and I both have experiences in trying to navigate medical weight stigma as physicians, challenging the accepted diagnostic standard that weight loss is the immediate answer to any issue facing a fat person. But we also both have experiences in navigating the healthcare system as fat patients and it’s not been easy or pleasant. Stephanie graciously shares two very traumatic experiences she endured as a fat patient, experiences that involved not just weight stigma but disabled body stigma within healthcare. We examine where this stigma comes from, how it’s perpetuated, and the clear harm that it’s doing to individuals and society. The fixation on a very specific thin weight as being the ideal from which to assess medical issues is damaging the roughly two-thirds of people who exist in bigger bodies than that narrow ideal. Join Stephanie and me as we get vulnerable and do a deep dive into what weight stigma is doing to healthcare and how we are trying to change that for future generations.

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About Dr. Stephanie Hart:

Stephanie Hart is a family physician by training, running a niche practice in sexual medicine. She was first exposed to weight stigma personally as a patient with her own health concerns, and this turned into an interest in medical weight stigma especially at an educational level.

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Learn more about Dr. Stephanie Hart:

• Website: SexualFunctionClinic.com

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
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