Check if you have lipoedema In early-stage lipoedema, you may have heavy legs, a narrow waist and a much smaller upper body. You may have a large bottom, thighs and lower legs, but your feet will usually be unaffected. Sometimes lipoedema can affect the arms too, but the hands are not usually affected.
Some of the symptoms of mild lipedema include: Achy or heavy legs: At the onset of lipedema, you may notice that your legs begin to feel heavier. As fat deposits build up on your legs, you may begin to experience achiness or mild discomfort.
Lipedema stages
The person will have nodules of enlarged fat present underneath the skin. A medical professional can feel these nodules during an examination. A person with stage 1 lipedema may experience some pain and easy bruising.
No lymphedema is present. As with Stage 1, the patient's condition is made worse by mental health disorders including stress and depression (resulting in more pain). Without proper weight management Stage I lipedema will frequently progress to Stage II.
Types of lipedema
Type I: Fat is between your belly button and your hips. Type II: Fat is between your pelvis and knees. Type III: Fat is between your pelvis and ankles. Type IV: Fat is between your shoulders and wrists.
Stage 1. In this early stage, it may be difficult to distinguish lipedema from excess fat on the lower body. Instead, providers look for certain characteristics, including: Extra fat in the buttocks, thighs, and calves, but not in the ankles or feet.
The tissue tenderness that is characteristic of lipedema can be checked with the pinch test, which is often felt as very unpleasant in the affected areas but causes no pain elsewhere. Increased capillary fragility manifests itself in spontaneous hematoma formation.
Obesity is the result of being overweight, which can cause fat to develop in the legs. Lipedema is the disproportionate setting of fat in arms and legs, unrelated to body weight, often associated with prominent swelling, common pain, and a column-like look. Lipedema can appear in both thin and obese individuals alike.
Lipedema is often confused with lymphedema, a similar disease that also causes swelling in the limbs. But under the microscope, the two disorders look different, and the causes, while similar, involve different effects on the vasculature. Both are often confused with obesity.
A helpful diagnostic tool to distinguish lipedema from lymphedema is to pinch the skin over the dorsum of the base of the second toe (Stemmer sign); thickened skin that is difficult to lift off of the underlying tissue is considered diagnostic for lymphedema.
If you are affected by lipoedema: your legs appear symmetrically swollen – swelling can occur from the hips down to the ankles and your legs appear column-like; the feet are not usually affected. affected areas feel 'spongy' and cool and the skin is generally soft and subtle. you bruise easily in the affected areas.
Causes of Lipedema
The cause is not known, but doctors suspect female hormones play a role. That's because the condition affects mostly women, and it often begins or worsens at puberty, during pregnancy, following gynecologic surgery, and around the time of menopause.
There's no specific test for lipoedema. The main sign is fat deposits on both sides of your body. These are out of proportion with the rest of your build, particularly on your buttocks and thighs. The fat can feel lumpy and be painful to touch.
Many people confuse lipedema fat and general fat that forms as a result of being overweight. Though they may appear similar, that isn't at all the case. There's a clear difference between regular fat and lipedema fatty tissue that the trained eye can pick out.
However, there is a stark difference between cellulite and lipedema. Lipedema is a medical condition that can result in pain, bruising, and swelling. On the other hand, cellulite is purely cosmetic and doesn't result in pain or require treatment.
affected areas of your body can bruise easily, sometimes for no obvious reason. dimpled legs with a lumpy texture, fat may bulge at the knees.
Lipedema requires a clinical diagnosis, meaning that there is no standardized test such as bloodwork or imaging that can confirm the presence of Lipedema.
When you first notice any signs or symptoms of lipedema, your general practitioner (GP) or a nurse is usually the one you refer to. The basic diagnostics for lipedema focus on your medical history and the physical examination of your body.
Liposuction is the only treatment available to lipedema patients that eliminates the troublesome fat deposits from the legs, hips, buttocks, stomach, and/or arms. Liposuction enables doctors to improve the look of the legs and restore better mobility for the long-term.
A simple pinch test can often tell you whether you have lipedema. To do this, pinch the skin lightly in the areas of the body that may be affected. If you experience disproportionate pain, you may suspect lipedema.
Age of onset: 10 to 30. Family history: Common. Areas affected: Buttocks, legs, thighs, arms.
Lipedema is sometimes characterized by pain and diet-resistant fat tissue accumulation in the subcutaneous tissue. This means that it is very difficult for us lipedema patients to lose fat in the affected areas through diet or exercise.