I’ve read around 10% women have lipedema, many of whom go undiagnosed.
Ever since puberty, I’ve always had very flabby upper thighs and large buttocks compared with the rest of my body. I’m skinny on the top half of my body, but my bottom half is really wobbly. My muscles aren’t strong but if I bulked them up, the fat would still be there - I know this because I have been a stone underweight in the past when I compulsively exercised and ate barely anything (unfortunately I was anorexic as a teen, but thankfully have been well for around 20 years now). Even then, I could grab a whole handfuls of it, which is part of what kept me in the grip of anorexia until I realised it was too miserable living life like that and started
My thighs currently look very similar to the attached image (insta pic of a young woman who has lipedema). I also have an awful lot of cellulite - the kind that practically throws shadows in places!
Exercise-wise now, I walk a lot, but don’t run (bad knees) or go to the gym. In the week I don’t tend to walk over 8,000 steps a day, but on weekends it can easily be above 20,000 each day. I walk swiftly every day so as to get my heart rate up and always run up the stairs at home.
My ankle on one side has a swelling that my GP previously said was a lipoma, but now I’m wondering if this is part of a bigger issue. I also have optic nerve drusen (fat deposits on the optic nerve) and a cholesterol that is on the higher side of normal, despite a healthy diet.
My BMI is around 19.5 (so I am still on the slim side) and my upper half looks skinny which I don’t like, but I never gain weight there. I also have slight bat wings under my arms.
I had liposuction around age 20 to remove my saddlebags on my outer thighs (plus a revision surgery). They are still there a bit, but considerably less noticeable than they were. They were very prominent prior to surgery and looked rather odd compared with my bony top half - they looked very like this: www.instagram.com/p/CEHrDM2gt1N/
As I get older, I have stopped wearing normal socks as I get a huge sock line at the ankle that lasts for hours. I wear trainer socks now. My legs get slightly bigger by the end of the day, but probably only I would notice. When it’s really hot or I have eaten something really salty, they swell as well (especially with the latter).
My query is, could it be lipedema if I have no pain? The ‘lipoma’ on my leg aches a bit sometimes, but nothing major. The rest of the flab is not painful.
Or am I just ‘skinny fat’? I am conscious that if it is lipedema there are things I need to be doing to prevent its progression. Problem is, I have a feeling it would be very hard to get a diagnosis because right now I don’t look particularly out of proportion - a passer-by might only look twice if they saw me in a swimming costume (which will be NEVER, haha) and I have read that most GPs don’t know much about to the condition.
Thanks and sorry for the long post.