Which is the best treatment for Lipedema? Can Lipedema be cured? If I undergo surgery, will the fat come back? If you have reached this far, it is because you suffer Lipedema or Lipoedema, and probably have asked yourself these questions and many others regarding the different treatment options and disease progression. Now we will tell you about treatments for Lipedema, which consist of conservative or surgical treatmernts.
There are different options that can help to alleviate pain and also reduce the symptoms of the condition. The earlier it is initiated, the more beneficial it can be, both for conservative and surgical treatment.
CONSERVATIVE TREATMENT
- Compression stockings
Using compression stockings helps to reduce symptoms to a high extent and to slow down disease progression. For the highest efficacy, you must use them 14 hours per day; and what is most important, these must be specific and made-to-measure stockings that you can buy at specialized shops. The good news is that these are reimbursed by Social Security, but in some cases, you need to fight in order to get them prescribed. We hope this won’t be your case!
- Sports
Most probably you are feeling pain when doing contact or impact sports. One of the clear symptoms of Lipedema is pain in the legs or excessive sensitivity in the affected areas. Low-impact sports are the most recommended to fight against Lipedema, such as walking, Pilates, and particularly water sports:
swimming or Aquagym, which is a very good exercise because the pressure of water alleviates heaviness and reduces slightly the pain symptoms. You will feel relief in your arms and legs! It would be interesting to do these exercises regularly, and daily if possible.
- Diet
“Diet? But diets won’t work for Lipedema!“ It is a fact that Lipedema, unlike Obesity, shows no significant response to conventional diets; but it is also true that an anti-inflammatory diet can help. Obviously, a strict diet is not the solution for Lipedema, but excess weight and obesity are aggravating factors, and they generate more fat which will make the condition even worse.
Remember: a good healthy and personalized diet is essential in conservative treatment, and also before and after surgery. Our Nutritionist, Paula Avellaneda, can advise you about this. As we told you, these conservative measures will help to alleviate discomfort and pain, but not the condition, and they will also delay disease progression. It has been demonstrated so far that when these conservative measures are discontinued, the problem persists and the disease keeps progressing.
The other pathway is surgical treatment.,
SURGICAL TREATMENT
This is a very effective and safe procedure when performed by a surgeon who is an expert in the technique, which consists in eliminating a large volume of fat through Liposuction, with the main goal to eliminate pain or improve the symptoms, as well as slowing down the disease progression. Surgery does not cure Lipedema, but it is very effective in those cases when the patient
experiences pain and has been following conservative treatment for a long time. HOWEVER, whether you like it or not, you must consult a surgeon who is an EXPERT in Lipedema, either with us or with anyone you trust, but ALWAYS get well informed and look for references. We leave you with our medical team so that you can get to know them in detail.
The surgical treatment for Lipedema consists in eliminating the diseased fatty tissue and, as we have already mentioned, this is done through Liposuction. The least invasive technique, and most commonly used for the surgical treatment of this condition, is the WAL technique, or Waterjet Assisted Liposuction, which we call ACualipo. However, our team of surgeons will often combine this technique with others such as Power Assisted Liposuction (PAL), also called vibroliposuction, and manual extraction of Lipedema, because this is effective and beneficial.
Is this effective?
As well as a major cosmetic improvement, most patients report great improvement in their symptoms and a better quality of life. Treatment is effective since the start, but this is clearly evident one month after the procedure, and keeps improving during the following months.
How long will I be hospitalized? Usually 1 night; but this period can be longer based on your stage of Lipedema and your recovery.
Typically, our Physiotherapy Specialist will perform the first manual lymphatic drainage at the hospital room the day after the procedure.
And how long until I can return to normal life?
After the surgery, it will usually take three or four weeks for patients to go back to work, to lead their normal life. This will also depend on their Lipedema stage and personal characteristics.
If you want more information, or to make an appointment at the Instituto Valenciano de Lipedema, you can call us at +34 963 410 600 or send us an email to: hablamos@