Teresa Sanderson, 60, has been living with lipoedema since her teenage years.
Teresa Sanderson’s face lights up with nostalgic joy as she gazes at photos of her younger self — a slim, elfin six-year-old with dainty legs. But, within months, everything changed. ‘In just two pictures — one taken in 1969, the other in 1970 — I looked like a different person,’ she recalls. ‘My legs had suddenly become huge.’ In the span of six months, she transformed from a delicate figure into someone she barely recognized.
‘The weight started piling on, despite me not changing my eating habits,’ says Teresa, now 60 and a former civil servant from Somerset. ‘The worst of it was on my legs. While my friends had slender legs, mine were incredibly large.’
Teresa’s condition is not merely a result of being overweight, as doctors once suggested. In fact, she suffers from lipoedema, a painful condition characterized by abnormal fat deposits in the legs that cause them to grow disproportionately.
Lipoedema develops due to an excess of fat cells in affected areas, often leading to a build-up of fluid in those cells. Commonly, the thighs are affected first, gradually intensifying over time. Additionally, despite popular belief, lipoedema is not exclusively associated with being overweight as individuals with healthy weights can develop the condition.
Despite affecting an estimated 10% of adult women in the UK, lipoedema remains relatively unknown. Many women suffering from it believe they are overweight or have cellulite, while many GPs are unfamiliar with the condition.
Teresa’s experience drastically worsened when, at the age of 16, she resorted to comforting herself with food after losing her mother unexpectedly. At its peak, her condition caused her to rely on a walking stick, impacting her mobility, and ultimately leading her to lose her job.
It took until 2012, when Teresa was 49, to receive a diagnosis from a male nurse at a wound clinic. Since there’s no diagnostic test for lipoedema, diagnosis is based on family history and thorough clinical examination.
Currently, Teresa feels that she has exhausted all available NHS treatments. Although she retrained to become a yoga teacher, her lipoedema makes movement difficult, severely limiting her life. Every outing has to be meticulously planned due to her limited mobility.
