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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think excess skin removal should be available on the NHS?

304 replies

TheGoodEnoughWife · 29/08/2016 20:29

I know being fat is seen as being self inflicted although I don't agree that it is and that people over eating should be taken as seriously as people under eating. But that isn't necessarily my point here..,

I am very overweight (about 6st overweight but am tall) and one of the things in the back of my mind is that if I lose weight my saggy skin will be awful. The reality is my 'strain' on the NHS being overweight has the potential to be great - surely encouragement to lose weight would cost the NHS less in the long run?
It would be helpful maybe to me and others who need to lose a lot of weight to know that treatment for excess skin would be available to them?

Now I may get flamed about self inflicted and so on but if I drive a car badly and crash I would be treated on the NHS, if I drink like a fish and cause myself illness I would be treated on the NHS, if I go about extreme sports and hurt myself I also would get treated on the NHS.
(I don't do any of those things!)

Any one see where I am coming from?

OP posts:
CoolToned · 29/08/2016 21:40

Heidi41

How old are you, if I may ask? I have lost some weight and the saggy skin is really getting to me. I think it's also making me not want to lose the last 2-3 stones that eagerly so I sabotage myself.

Highlandfling80 · 29/08/2016 21:41

beez I rang surgery to book nurse led appointment but I was told they don't do them anymore but could get 12 weeks slimming world. 3 appointments later and they finally admitted I didn't qualify. Managed to lose weight 21/2 stone by myself but sadly it is going back on.as I lost it too quick.

CotswoldStrife · 29/08/2016 21:42

Even when you don't know if you're going to end up with excess skin?

Blueberry234 · 29/08/2016 21:44

Thegoodenoughwife - not at all I got myself into it need to deal with the consequences

WiddlinDiddlin · 29/08/2016 21:44

I think some people are truly clueless as to what excess skin from huge weight loss is really like.

It is certainly NOT just a 'cosmetic problem' - unless you count skin tears, bruising, chafing, skin infections that will NOT heal - as all purely cosmetic?

Its hard to exercise and maintain weight loss when your excess skin will not fit into the top and pants you now need to wear, but you can't wear the bigger ones as they fall off you...

Its really hard to move around and do more when the excess skin you have rubs holes in itself or tears if you move the wrong way, and you need to avoid sweating because you know its going to set up yet another nasty infection wtih pus filled blisters that need to be aired to dry ...

Yep, totally cosmetic, not a health risk whatsoever.

MeepyMupp · 29/08/2016 21:45

Another one who also has teeth issues. My adult teeth (all of them) were completely ruined by tetracycline I had been given for severe asthma/ chest infections as a baby through to being about 4. I hate my teeth and sometimes they make me feel like I am the most disgusting person ever It is not my fault my teeth are like they way they are, I had no control over it as I was a child. I don't smile, feel self conscious if anyone takes any photos and ALWAYS keep my mouth closed. It really gets to me as I know I look ugly because of it

Original poster
TheGoodEnoughWife · 29/08/2016 21:45

Have lost 3st in the past year or two and saw signs of it then so think I will! Have put it back on now though. But it is true that I should get down to a reasonable weight to see what I am dealing with so to speak!

OP posts:
SallyVating · 29/08/2016 21:45

I lost 20 stone.

I look something like the photos a pp linked to above.

The criteria for me to have skin removal surgery is for me to maintain a bmi of 27 for three years.

I can't even get to that bmi because I'm 1.50 metres tall and the excess weighs more than 4 stone.

It does have horrendous effects, both physical and psychological but there we are. There's no way I can raise the 28k it would cost to have it done privately so I continue to live a very restricted, painful life and will do for the foreseeable.

BMW6 · 29/08/2016 21:46

I don't know if you saw my post above that crossed with yours OP, but I believe that if skin removal was available on the NHS then even more people would become obese........why wouldn't they? The NHS is there to fix it all......
Can you not see how dangerous this path could be?

SallyVating · 29/08/2016 21:46

*excess skin weighs more than 4 stone

user1468407812 · 29/08/2016 21:49

I think that if excess skin removal was provided by the NHS, then people would think nothing of putting weight on knowing they have something to fall back on. Cosmetic procedures should not be funded by the NHS. Cases of cancer alone are on the increase and money is very much needed for this and other life threatening diseases/ailments.

iPost · 29/08/2016 21:51

I actually think the promise of a excess skin removal if I lost weight and keep it off for a set amount of time would help me stick to a diet

Not for weight loss, but there are changes I need to make. I could win the Olympic Gold Medal for procrastination when it comes to actually doing anything about those changes.

One of my tricks is to set an impossible condition on the route to success. So something that can't happen, that is the key to the change. And without that key... well it won't work ! I NEED the key and then it will all happen.

So making changes is set aside while I hyper focus on the missing key, with the added bonus that it somebody else's fault.

I know I'm doing it. But I keep on doing it. And the shadowy "somebody else" I blame for key stealing and blocking me... they don't live with the reality of not making the much needed change. I do.

I am not saying that you are doing "impossible conditions" self sabotague. But it does happen, and it is worth considering if it is trap you may have fallen into. It's fairly common one for humans.

Sallystyle · 29/08/2016 21:51

But my point is if free excess skin removal would encourage people to lose weight then the overall strain on the NHS would be less?

I don't think it would make much of a difference at all.

I lost five stone for my health, I knew I might get loose skin but at least I would be healthier.

I shouldn't have to walk around with hundreds of lumps all over my body, I shouldn't have to just suck the pain up, I shouldn't have to feel like a freak when my husband runs his hands over my lumpy body. But that is life, the NHS won't fund it so I have to get on with it.

I am a cluster of fucking lumps but it's not life threatening and the pain isn't bad enough because it isn't constant, as long as I lie the right way, sit the right way and no one touches me with any force at all.

If loose skin is removed then so should many other 'cosmetic' procedures. One is not more deserving of another.

Mummyoflittledragon · 29/08/2016 21:53

Widdling. Op said she needed to loose 6 stone. The answers she gets will be in relation to this. What you and Sally are talking about is very different and debilitating. And I know all about a debilitating illness and chronic pain.

Original poster
TheGoodEnoughWife · 29/08/2016 21:53

Yes I did see that. I don't think people would put weight on just because they know excess skin could be fixed. After all weight loss is hard and you would still need to do that.

I actually don't think the long term implications of being overweight are considered by people until they actually are obese? One always thinks 'well, I could just diet if I wanted' the realisation that you will not spring back to a thin body is a not really understood to many until it is too late.

OP posts:
inarmsofanangel · 29/08/2016 21:54

Not quite the same but I hear you!
I have a 3 x 3 inch lump on my back that sticks out under all my clothes.
Just had it biopsied and thankfully it's benign. However, NHS will not remove it as it would be considered cosmetic I'm being told even though it sits next to my spine and left to grow bigger! :(
I haven't worn a swimsuit in a few years or tops that won't cover it as it looks awful!

FreeFromHarm · 29/08/2016 21:58

I saw a tummy tuck and boob op on a American tv show once , oh my lord ... You look like a jigsaw puzzle after and you look a sight worse in my opinion.
💐 For you Jennifer , my late mums birthday was last Friday so know exactly how you are feeling X

inarmsofanangel · 29/08/2016 21:59

But...I do agree with the others. I'd rather the money spent o n what might take a benign lump out which currently is not causing pain be spent on a cancerous lump. If one cosmetic procedure is allowed then others should be too.

BodsAuntieFlo · 29/08/2016 21:59

I don't agree that excess skin removal on the NHS should be allowed. There's a lot of other far more critical diseases and conditions that the money should be spent on IMO.

Original poster
TheGoodEnoughWife · 29/08/2016 22:01

There is an element of self sabotage I do know that. My thoughts of how I will look stops me losing the weight and seeing how I actually will look!

OP posts:
OhTheRoses · 29/08/2016 22:03

I'd be happy to pay an extra 1p in the pound for the NHS. Happy for Continental type system of social health care introduced with up front fixed fees for consultations. I understand the NHS isn't sustainable in its present form. I don't think the purpose of the NHS is to resolve saggy skin for cosmetic reasons.

However if that skin is infecting and ulcerating it needs to go. I also think U2s Lipomas need to go.

However, MH issues need parity with all physical issues first. If that were so there might be fewer people with eating disorders.

microscope · 29/08/2016 22:05

Perhaps I chose a poor turn of phrase but 2 women in my circle of friends have had breast enlargement on the nhs. They were given it as it had as they said it had a detrimental effect on their mental health to be flat chested.

I'd hazard a guess that this wasn't recent. Things have changed hugely and this would no longer be done.

Agrestic · 29/08/2016 22:05

I lost 5.5 stone. I've got saggy flat boobs, a weird tummy which kinda sags in a W - my belly button being the middle of the W, floppy arms and things that droop down. My face/cheeks have gone south too Shock

It was my own doing. But I'm alive and healthy! Sure I'd physically look better with some nipping and tucking but the nhs shouldn't have to pay for it. Would be wicked if they could, but hey ho.

People who have vast amounts of skin should, and I believe can have it removed. But it should be because it's a risk to your health, not cosmetic.

tigerlilly0404 · 29/08/2016 22:06

YABU.

The NHS can't afford to fund life saving drugs for children, life changing drugs for children with muscular dystrophy but you want them to sort out your excess skin??

FreeFromHarm · 29/08/2016 22:10

Shiny, hope you do not mind me asking , is thre a certain criteria to have bypass done ?
Hope it goes well

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