3 Ways to Decline Being Weighed at the Doctor’s Office
Feeling stigmatized because of your weight at the doctor’s office is an all too common experience. This stigma can look like being prescribed weight loss for every ailment with which you present, having your health concerns taken less seriously, and feeling shamed about your body size, to name a few. Research indicates that anti-fat bias in the healthcare field is associated with worse medical care and experience poorer health outcomes.
This fatphobia persists despite the lack of a causal connection between weight and health, research that indicates that experiencing weight stigma is more detrimental to health than weight itself, and despite the fact that we have no reliable intervention to support long-term weight loss.
As a healthcare consumer, you have the autonomy to direct your care. If you have concerns regarding weight discrimination negatively impacting your care (or if you are just fed up with weight being used as a shortcut to understanding your health), you are well within your rights to decline being weighed at the doctor’s office.
Here are three ways you can say “no, thank you:”
OPTION 1: Be Unapologetically Assertive
You do not owe anyone an explanation regarding your relationship with your body, and that includes your healthcare providers. Although medical providers often appear to be authority figures, they are really just people too. You are a consumer of their services and you are allowed to have a say in what kind of services you are provided. Try an unapologetically assertive phrase like,
“I’m not comfortable being weighed today and would like to skip this step of the appointment.”
It may be tempting to follow up with a detailed explanation as to why, and you can share this aspect if you’d like, but again, it’s not your job to explain yourself.
OPTION 2: Compromise with Blind Weighing
Sometimes, knowing your weight is important information your doctor needs to inform a treatment decision (like certain medication dosages). In these cases, your doctor may insist on weighing you. First, you can clarify if weight is a necessary piece of information by asking,
“Would the treatment option or type you are considering change if I was in a differently sized body?”
If the answer is yes (and they can clearly explain to you why without hints of anti-fat bias), consider requesting a blind weight, or an experience on the scale where you are not informed of the number. You can say something like,
“If weighing me is medically necessary in order to inform care, I’d prefer not to see the number and request that this number not be communicated to me in any way over the course of my visit, including on my end of appointment paperwork.”
OPTION 3: Shift the Focus
One of the reasons to decline a weigh-in at the doctor’s office is to de-centralize weight from conversations surrounding your health. You can advocate for this de-centralization by shifting the conversation to health rather than weight:
I’m no longer using weight as a way to understand my health and would like this appointment to focus on my health independent from weight.
I’ve found that focusing too much on my weight is more detrimental to my health and am no longer weighing myself. I’d like to continue this approach in the doctor’s office as well.
Stepping on the scale is triggering for me - is there a different way we can track changes in my body size?
Can we use other measurements to understand my physical health today?
Let me know if you’ve tried any of these approaches and if they worked for you!