Why I am Interested in Lipedema

Why Learn About Lipedema?

by Kathleen Lisson
Certified Lymphedema Therapist
ACE Certified Personal Trainer

I was fresh out of massage school and had only been a certified massage therapist for a few months when she came in for her first appointment. She was tall, blonde and, at 16 years old, had booked her first massage ever with her mother’s permission at the day spa where I worked. She shyly told me she enjoyed playing several sports but had not been able to diet away a layer of tissue that had started to accumulate on her legs.

She’s not the first person to ask me if massage can either help with weight loss or reduce cellulite, but this was something different. I remember noticing something unusual at her ankles. Her calves ended abruptly at the top of her foot, almost like she was wearing a pair of thin leggings. I knew from my oncology massage class that there was a condition called lymphedema, but this was different. I made a mental note to look back into my textbooks and see if I could figure out what was going on. For weeks I hoped she would come back for another massage, but I never saw her again. It’s been a few years, and knowing what I know now, I wish I could have suggested she do an internet search for the word ‘lipedema.’

For many women, lipedema adipose tissue starts appearing at puberty and may increase with childbirth and menopause. It is not reduced by diet and exercise, but women can spend decades trying to lower their weight in vain, desperately wondering why no diet or exercise regime ever works for them. The average woman is in her forties when she is finally diagnosed.

I breaks my heart that I was unable to help that innocent, shy blonde girl that came to me for her first massage. I have spent time over the past months giving presentations around San Diego to raise awareness about the adipose tissue disorder called lipedema, in the hopes that the men and women I speak to will be able to see it in their friends or family and help the women they love avoid years of frustration and thousands of dollars trying diets and exercise programs that will not remove the lipedema tissue on their legs, thighs and buttocks.