Coming to Spain for lipedema surgery
Most of our international patients come from the United States and Canada, and some are Spanish women now living in Germany or Sweden. You can also read our study of 1,069 patients in Spain. This page is the honest version of what travelling here involves: how long you need to stay, what we organise for you, what happens once you are home again, and what we do not cover.
Before you book a flight: three things to know
We would rather you find the difficult parts here than after paying a deposit. The stay is long, there is no financing for international patients, and the physiotherapy after you go home is arranged and paid by you locally. If any of those three is a dealbreaker, better to know now.
How it starts, before you travel
The first consultation is a video call, so you do not travel to find out whether lipedema surgery is even indicated. Before it, we send you a guide explaining how to take the photos and videos we need for the assessment.
Dr. Alexo Carballeira speaks English and Portuguese. The rest of the team can attend you in English, and if you need another language we arrange an interpreter.
You receive your quote on the day of that first consultation, not weeks later.
How long you need to be here
Fifteen days is the minimum, from arrival to being cleared to fly home. It is not a long weekend, and we will not tell you otherwise.
When you can fly is part of recovery after lipedema surgery, so it is a medical decision, not an administrative one: the doctor and the nurse tell you during your consultations here, based on how your recovery is going. Book flexible return travel.
- Airport transfers and travel between the hotel and the clinic.
- Accommodation, including for whoever comes with you.
- Everything else around the trip. If you need it organised, we organise it.
What happens when you go home
This is the question international patients ask most, and it is a fair one: what happens when you are thousands of kilometres away and something worries you at two in the morning.
- Video follow-ups with the nurse, weekly in the first stretch after surgery.
- Reviews with the doctor at 3, 6 and 12 months.
- A full year of follow-up, until you are formally discharged.
- A 24-hour emergency phone line for anything genuinely urgent.
- The team is reachable for questions in between. You are not handed a discharge sheet and forgotten.
The one thing you arrange yourself: physiotherapy. Lymphatic drainage and physiotherapy are part of the lipedema treatment that continues after surgery, and they are essential, and you will need to contract them where you live. We tell you exactly what to ask for and what the schedule should be, and we coordinate with your therapist, but the service and its cost are yours to arrange.
Money, plainly
You get a closed quote on the day of your first video consultation, before you commit to anything.
- There is no financing for international patients. We offer payment plans in Spain, but not for patients resident abroad.
- Your national insurance will not cover this. We have no case of a foreign insurer reimbursing the surgery.
- Budget separately for physiotherapy at home, flights and the extra days if your recovery needs them.
We would rather say this on a public page than in an awkward email later.
Paperwork
Nothing special is required to be treated here, whether you come from inside or outside the European Union.
If you need your medical reports in English, to take to your doctor or your insurer at home, we prepare them. Just ask.
Common questions
Can I have the first consultation without travelling?
Yes. It is a video call, and we send you a guide for the photos and videos we need beforehand. You only travel once surgery has been indicated and you have decided to go ahead.
Will I be understood in English?
Yes. Dr. Carballeira speaks English and Portuguese, and the team attends international patients in English. For other languages we arrange an interpreter.
Why fifteen days?
Because recovery after lipedema surgery is monitored, not just waited out: dressings, compression, lymphatic drainage and checks before you are cleared to fly. Leaving earlier would mean flying without that supervision.
Can someone come with me?
Yes, and we help organise their accommodation too.
What if something happens once I am home?
You have a 24-hour emergency line, weekly video follow-ups with the nurse in the early stage, and reviews with the doctor at 3, 6 and 12 months, for a full year until discharge.
Do you offer financing or work with insurers?
No. There is no financing for international patients, and we have no case of a foreign insurer covering this surgery. The quote is given in full on the day of your first consultation.
