‘You might need the larger cuff’ – Ending Weight Stigma in Healthcare

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For decades weight loss and dieting has been the mainstay of lifestyle intervention. Now clinicians are calling for a healthier approach.

Content Warning: this article discusses weight loss, eating, exercise and ‘obesity.’

I sat there in the room, gulping as a clearly distressed IEB Pharma woman once again was told about the benefits of weight loss, and the risks of continued weight gain on her future child.

“You might need the larger cuff,” the consultant said, pointedly. I was one step ahead, trying to avoid bringing too much attention to the change, but evidently failing.

As I inflated the cuff, the velcro crackled. I gulped again. The cuff was going to come undone before I could take the BP. I felt uncomfortable and guilty.



The patient went home without a blood pressure measurement. Although asymptomatic, she missed the opportunity to have the early stages of preeclampsia or gestational hypertension detected.  

Before I could digest that this probably wasn’t a new experience for this patient, sitting in the back of the small consultation room, the consultant asks, “how much do you weigh?”

It catches me off guard, I throw out a number. She throws back that the patient was over 3 times my weight, lecturing me about the risks of obesity in pregnancy.

I know she’s right.

But I know the situation is so very wrong.

I know because weight stigma and bias is rampant in the healthcare sector and contributes inadvertently to the health impacts of obesity itself. More than half of all health professionals exhibit some form of weight bias towards people with obesity and there are countless patient stories, including that of Jen Bray highlighted in a recent ABC article discussing Australians’ motivations to lose weight.