Please Don’t Call this Weight Loss Surgery!

Words have meanings and connotations associated with them. Calling a sleeve gastrectomy a “weight loss surgery” implies that the main reason for surgery is for weight loss.  This could not be farther from the true reason for surgery.  I believe that the term “weight loss surgery” only further stigmatizes patients with obesity. By focusing only on the weight loss aspect of surgery, we imply that weight loss is the most important reason or the only reason for surgery.  This supports the common misconception that our surgeries are for cosmetic or vain reasons.  It supports all the naysayers who say that people with this disease are “lazy,”  that they are at their weight only because they cannot diet and exercise well, and that they could be “thin” with only more willpower.  It supports all the insurance companies who continuously deny our patients their treatment because they treat our surgeries still as elective procedures with the goal of "just losing weight"-this is all false.  This is NOT weight loss weight surgery.  

What we perform is metabolic surgery to treat the extremely complex disease of obesity. Obesity is linked to a myriad of other diseases and conditions.  These diseases include high blood pressure, diabetes, strokes, arthritis, sleep apnea, infertility, PCOS, and so much more. We know that these associated conditions are often due to the increased inflammation that is caused by the disease of obesity. 

Our surgeries, including sleeve gastrectomy and SADI-S,  directly work to correct an individual’s metabolism and control not just the disease of obesity, but its associated co-conditions. Therefore, calling this just weight loss surgery, fails to convey the true reason for surgery. The main purpose of our surgeries is to correct a patient’s metabolism to improve quality of life and prolong life span. 

The weight loss that we see after surgery is a very happy consequence of surgery but is NOT the main reason for surgery.  Our patients lead longer, healthier, and happier lives not just because they lose weight, but because their metabolism was corrected and all the associated health conditions are better controlled or eliminated.

Please don’t call this weight loss surgery.  This is a medical treatment and metabolic surgery.