蜜芽传媒

Research is being carried out on the genetic cause of lipoedema - a condition that causes women to have abnormally fat or 鈥榯ree trunk鈥� shaped legs. Experts at London鈥檚 St George鈥檚 Hospital and St George鈥檚 at the University of London hope the research will help to find the cause of the disease which is thought to affect around 9% of women.

Lipoedema fat is different to normal fat in that it doesn鈥檛 respond to diet and exercise and causes pain and bruising. It usually gets worse over time and can lead to mobility issues and another condition called lymphedema. It often starts at periods of hormonal change such as puberty, pregnancy or menopause.

Hollie鈥檚 32 and from Hull. She first developed bigger legs when she was 16 and was diagnosed with lipoedema three years ago. She鈥檚 had a special type of liposuction to remove the abnormal fat and said the operation will be 鈥渓ife changing鈥�.

The NHS page on lipoedema says 鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to get NHS funding for liposuction for lipoedema but your GP can try to apply for funding through your local CCG鈥�.

Hollie said 鈥淚 was worried that people would think I was just fat and not exercising or eating a healthy diet but lipoedema fat鈥檚 not affected by things like that. It鈥檚 a build up of abnormal cells鈥�.

Following the surgery Hollie said 鈥淲hen people say you look amazing - I say but I didn鈥檛 do this for how I wanted to look, I did this to get rid of the pain鈥�.

This clip is originally from 5 live

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