Planning what to say during doctors appointment
Hello :) I want to preface this by saying that I go between thinking I may have lipedema and then having serious doubts about having it. I experience no symptoms other than some surface level texture (which could very well just be cellulite) and more bottom heavy fat distribution (but I do not having cuffing, or at least nothing that looks like anything I’ve seen on this subreddit or in research articles, or saddlebags). I do have more fat around my inner knees, and calves that are largely unaffected by whatever may be going on. This is a bit of a long read, sorry! I’ve been nervous to talk to anyone about this for a long time, and I’d like to be able to properly articulate my experience now that I am going to talk to someone about it.
A bit of background:
I am 25 and I do a mixture of cycling and weight lifting 4-5 times a week, and have always been an active person. My legs have always been larger than my upper body, but I’m unsure if this is “disproportionate”. I have reasonably severe body dysmorphia, so I am inclined to say that I probably perceive myself to be more disproportionate than I actually am.
Here’s what I do struggle with, I tend to have day to day, symmetrical swelling in my legs. From what I have read, and the women around me, the swelling seems to be more “reactive” than normal, throughout the day swelling. While it’s the swelling that’s at times made me think that I may have lipedema, it’s the irregularity of it that also makes me doubt that I do. Some days I wake up with quite lean legs, that have clear definition, and other days I wake up with what looks like noticeable water retention around my knees, and have noted that this swelling tends to be around major lymph nodes. Given what I’ve read, lipedema sounds like it doesn’t include this kind of day to day fluctuation? This may be a misconception that I have, and I would so, so appreciate any input about this.