Izzy Lomax-Sawyers

Final year medical student training to be a doctor. Challenging weight stigma in healthcare. This is my profesh account for keeping it profesh.

[Dr Leslea, Wizard of Os @DrLeslea]

And, if you are going to tell a reproductive-aged woman she has an ovarian cyst, do us all a favour and add: "you make a cyst every month when you ovulate, which is why this is probably normal"

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@JaneDoeFutureMD @MedHumChat Thank you!!! <3 <3

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@MedHumChat @Gina_Nicoll Thanks for having me! Will see you at all at another #MedHumChat now that I know about them - what a fantastic idea, and thanks so much for running it <3
Ka kite anō e hoa ma (bye for now, mates!)

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@StevenMurphyQD @Evgeniya_NP @MedHumChat I am so keen to see trauma informed care taught explicitly to all health practitioners! #MedHumChat

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@MichaeliLaura @LReedsbooks Side note: blessed to practice in a pretty non-litigious jurisdiction which has a national accident insurance scheme covering treatment injuries 😅

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@MedHumChat Q4. At the same time, the health system does reproduce and reinforce wider societal fatphobia, and this stigma is bad for our patients. We've all done intro to public health - we know marginalisation leads to poor health outcomes! #MedHumChat

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@MedHumChat Q4. I think that healthcare providers are products of a fatphobic society. I know the sadness and shame many practitioners have when they realise the harm they are causing in their practice, and these days I try to approach this with compassion for all. #MedHumChat

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@MedHumChat Q3. @yrfatfriend writes so beautifully and I needed to sit with this one for a long time because the profound injustice and loss described in the stories in that essay made me so sad and sick and furious #MedHumChat

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@MedHumChat @yrfatfriend Q2. And because (1) all fat bodies are a problem and (2) the solution is simple maths, then (3) fat people are non-compliant (ugh)/failures/to blame, if they don't or can't become less fat when the doctor suggests they should. #MedHumChat

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@MedHumChat Q2. I think that medics are taught to view fat bodies as failures of maths. As @yrfatfriend describes in the next essay in today's chat, mantras like "eat less, move more" and "calories in, calories out" form the basis for how body weight is discussed by many docs. #MedHumChat

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@Gina_Nicoll @MedHumChat I think med is guilty of this with a lot of things, body size being only one of them. I think a lot of it comes back to healthism, and widespread ideas about the moral virtue of health and that a healthy body can be necessarily earned through good character and effort #MedHumChat

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@MedHumChat Izzy, tweeting today from Christchurch. Fave podcasts are @FatLipPodcast (a wonderful fat activism podcast) and the GeM Podcast (got me through my final med exams!) #MedHumChat

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@ScottVernaglia @MedHumChat I'm so glad 😍

[Izzy Lomax-Sawyers @izzylomax]

@MedHumChat Kia ora and good afternoon from Aotearoa New Zealand! I'm looking forward to the kōrero (chat) #MedHumChat

[MedHumChat @MedHumChat]

Welcome to #MedHumChat! The topic of tonight’s chat is weight bias in health care. We’ll be discussing essays on this theme by @izzylomax and Your Fat Friend @yrfatfriend. https://t.co/uDcrIjn0FG