FAT SAFE MEDICAL

an evolving resource for finding fat-friendly medical care, from and for fat people

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Lisa Gaughran, therapy practice, Amherst MA

Lisa Gaughran, therapy practice, Amherst MA

37 S Pleasant St  Amherst, Massachusetts

Lisa is FANTASTIC. She’s extremely easy to talk to and I’ve never felt unsafe or uncomfortable talking to her as a fat, trans, disabled, nonbinary, plural, and neuroatypical person.  She’s extremely unjudgmental, and she’s the kind of therapist who shies away from giving advice but rather asks leading questions and listens, and let’s myself hearing my answers to her questions out loud be its own source of advice. That can be frustrating for me at times but I almost always come out of my sessions with her feeling better than I did coming in, and she does a really good job of helping me along in figuring out the life choices that are right for me without outright giving her opinion. She’s lovely. I can never recommend her enough. 

Her affordability depends on your insurance. My insurance doesn’t cover her but she was so nice about it. I think her usual rate is like $150 a session? But since my insurance doesn’t cover her she only charges me $100 to make it more affordable. I wouldn’t go to anyone else because I’ve never had such good chemistry with any other mental health professional. She typically doesn’t have openings except sporadically when a client leaves her, so I guess it’s kind of a matter of getting lucky? I don’t think she has any sort of waitlist or anything so it’s just a matter of calling at the right time or being vigilant. 

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Pos. Exp. with a GP Brandon Manitoba

“Dr. Blaine Turner is a young doctor I found after a string of fat phobic doctors who refused to treat my eating disorder, often insisting I go on restrictive diets. Dr. Turner was careful when putting me on stimulants for my ADHD due to their tendency to remove appetite and only takes my blood pressure (which is always good except when I’m having bad anxiety) rarely.

She makes no remarks about my weight and treats me like a human being who needs health care (and listens when I express my concerns about any treatment she brings up).

If anyone from Brandon, Manitoba, Canada needs a doc I think she’s hard to get into but she’d be worth a try from my experience at least :)

Glad to finally have some stable health care after all these years!!!”

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Endocrinologist in Cincinnati, OH

“I highly recommend Dr. Katherine Miller of the Christ Hospital Diabetes & Endocrine Center in Cincinnati. She, her receptionist, and her nurse were all notably friendly and welcoming and put me at ease. I am young and was there for t2 diabetes, but there was absolutely no blame or shame. She mentioned weight loss options but did not pressure me or seem put-off when I indicated that I was not interested. She explained the many options and answered my questions in as much detail as I wanted, so that I felt I was making informed decisions with her help, rather than being told what to do. We also discussed conditions unrelated to diabetes, about which she was just as knowledgeable and helpful. At the Harrison Ave. location she has either wider chairs or armless chairs in both the waiting room and exam rooms. (I haven’t been to the Red Bank Rd. location.) It did take several months to get in to see her from the time that I first called as a new patient – this is the only drawback I can think of for her. I am not queer, trans, or a sex worker, but I’d be surprised if she and her staff were anything other than wonderful for people who are. I recommend Dr. Miller for absolutely anyone, if you can wait a bit to get in with her.”

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“I recently went to the Missouri Western Medical Center in Warrensburg MO and saw Dr. Traci Johnson for my first Well Woman’s Exam. Everyone on staff from the receptionists to the nurse who asked my preliminary questions was great. When I requested not to see my weight, it was not contested at all. When I had general insurance questions, I was able to get everything figured out clearly. So, so far so good.

Dr. Johnson was easy to talk to, explained answers to my questions really clearly (birth control information in particular was fabulously explained), and was reassuring when I mentioned general concerns with family health history. Nothing about my weight or size was brought up at all and I was treated like someone able to understand her own health whole time I was with her.

I plan on coming back to see her again and I recommend her to anyone in the area!”

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“Putting out a request for a fat positive (and trans positive) therapist in Atlanta, GA”

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“Douglas Tran, Edward Medical Group, Naperville, IL

Very positive experience with Dr. Tran as a fat-friendly doctor.  I’ve never once felt shamed with him, and always felt like he listened closely to me and wanted to help.  His focus was always on how to improve my health in any possible way.  When my weight was relevant to an issue, he discussed it respectfully.  When I had strep throat, that was all we discussed.  His approach to helping me manage my weight was very collaborative and focused on brainstorming solutions.  I always felt very safe and well cared-for in his practice.”

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“I don’t know if you have many followers in the Ashland, Kentucky area but Dr. Kevin Miller of general surgery at King’s Daughters hospital is extremely fatphobic, whenever I went to see him for an issue unrelated to my weight, he launched into a lecture about how I HAVE to do something that I need to go to their healthy life center and start a diet & counseling to stop eating my feelings and start making healthy choices “because you obviously aren’t now” and he said point blank “I hope you don’t plan to live past 40. You’re going to develop lesions on your skin, you’re going to have heart attacks and have an extremely miserable short life” I felt really humiliated and hurt bc I’m extremely healthy and I never told him about my lifestyle choices or eating habits, he just projected all of that. If you have any followers in that area, please take care and beware.”

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“Halp! I'm looking for a fat-safe endocrinologist (I know, shouldn't they all be, given their specialty?!) in the Los Angeles area, preferably west side, preferably a female doc, but a fat-safe male would be fine, too. Many thanks! Bless this blog!”

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Hello! I'm looking for a Fat friendly OB-GYN in Portland OR (including Portland metro). Can you help? Thank you, Kacee

Anyone know of anyone?

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Dr. Rothenberg of Old Tappan Pediatrics is Safe!!

Hi, I’m an overweight 17 year old and I have been overweight since around age 10. Dr. Nancy Rothenberg has always been kind to me about it, worked to understand why I was overweight and create solutions for it rather than criticizing me, and commended my progress in controlling my weight. I understand that this is a pediatric doctor and that might not suit everyone’s needs but just in case!

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“I had a great experience with Karen Godbey, ARNP, in Tallahassee, Florida. I hadn’t been to a primary care physician in years because I was tired of being yelled at for my weight. I asked not to be informed of the actual number (I have some eating disorder stuff that I’m still working on) and the nurse was fine and told me to step on the scale backwards. They took my blood pressure and other vitals and said everything was perfectly normal. They never even mentioned my weight, which was a relief. Karen is not a doctor, she’s a nurse practitioner, but for primary care that generally doesn’t matter. I know she takes United Healthcare.”

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Please post anonymously!

I have just now worked up the courage to see a doctor again after almost four years after my appointment with Dr. Josefina Cancino at Middletown FamilyCare Associates in Middletown, DE. I feel like I was assaulted as did my family member, who is a medical professional, after I told her what happened.

I am morbidly obese and am used to tough love, but was completely humiliated by the way she treated me. She did not give me any privacy to get changed- she literally stood over me, and cut me off when I was trying to explain what my symptoms were. Let’s just say she started by examining the wrong body part after I’d spent several minutes explaining what was wrong. The nature of my visit was rather intimate; she took no care in how I or the situation was handled and used excessive force in the examination. She literally yelled at me over and over again while examining me- in my vulnerable state, “You’re fat! You’re too fat! You’re fat!” There are more details to how degrading it was, and how I suffered further injury from the appointment itself, but I digress.

I left the office in a state of shock. I literally broke out into a cold sweat and everything because a blur. When I got to my car I started crying. After I went home, I conveyed what happened to the aforementioned family member. I spoke to the found of the practice the next day, as did my family member since they had a prior history. I was assured it would be dealt with accordingly. I did not get out of bed after that for two days.  

I hope to God no one else has an experience like that. My eyes well with tears, and I feel a wave of anxiety whenever I think of seeing a doctor.

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I had a horrendous experience with a Dr. Gibson at Spine Specialty Center St. Francis in Memphis, TN. I told him I suffered from eating disordered thoughts from a past disorder and he wouldn't stop talking about my weight and gastric bypass (I was there for RSD in my foot which wouldn't be helped by losing weight anyway), when I kept pressing him to please stop, he got angry and walked out refusing to help me.

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Does anyone know of a fat friendly pain management doctor/clinic in or near Memphis, TN?

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This is from two anonymous asks that I’ve combined:

“I have a negative review for Pediatric Doctor Farzana Butt in Port Charlotte/North Port, FL. She was my pediatrician until I turned 18 about months ago. Multiple times I tried to bring up my problems with chronic joint pain. Her response was often something like "your joints are tired from carrying all of that extra weight." She would also tell me we could only discuss my problems after I had lost 30+ pounds. Made me feel very guilty and ashamed of myself for being sick. This doctor also referred me to a dermatologist (who I cannot recall the name of) who was even more extremely fatphobic. My skin condition had absolutely nothing to do with my weight, but he quite literally yelled at me that I needed to lose weight, recommended a slew of diet pills (I was only 12 years old) and absolutely terrified me. When I returned to Butt & complained about the dermatologist, she simply said he could be "a bit intense””

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Anyone know of a good fat-friendly primary doc in the San Antonio, Texas area?

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Negative: Lisa Joyner GP/OB in Portland,OR

I went in to get my annual pap and talk about steps to take out my birth control implant and get pregnant. I’d been putting it off due to sheer terror and anxiety. The assistant and front office are super nice but the first thing the doctor asked me was if I had any symptoms of type 2 diabetes (no hi, no ‘what brings you in’ just immediate diabetes question) and then proceeded to tell me I should lose at least 40 pounds before even thinking of getting pregnant. She told me she could recommend a few DIET PILLS to help me out. Again, this is all before she really even knows who I am. The rest of the appointment was just shaming me for not coming in sooner, and insisting that I had high cholesterol and needed to get blood work done. I explained that I had blood work done last year and was cleared for any 'weight related issues’. But my concerns were dismissed. Left the office in tears!