Englishwoman Bella Mansfield (18) noticed the first changes in her legs when she was thirteen, but at that time she attributed them to puberty only. But when her lower limbs continued to swell as she got older and she was in excruciating pain, her mom became concerned. , experts eventually discovered the true cause of her health problems.
- Bella Mansfield has been suffering from severe leg pain since puberty.
- Doctors initially attributed her heavy and swollen legs to poor blood circulation.
- A specialist finally diagnosed the young woman with lipedema.
Bella, from Plymouth, England, had been complaining of leg pain for years and that it was always very hard. At first, her mother Amanda thought it was just poor blood circulation, she advised her daughter to prop up her legs with pillows at night. Even this advice did not help, so she decided to take her to a doctor. “He didn’t take it seriously at all and even he attributed it to poor circulation,” says the mother today.
As the years passed, Bella began to notice that her body proportions were very odd. “The hip-to-waist ratio was weird. I had huge legs, but small feet and hands. Despite that, I kept telling myself that maybe I just needed to eat better and exercise more“, she admitted.
Later, when the young woman went to the doctor again, she again heard, according to her words, that it was nothing serious. “I knew it wasn’t right, I insisted they send her to a specialist. He diagnosed her with lipedema within 15 minutes,” mom Amanda revealed.
This condition occurs when fat is abnormally deposited under the skin (most commonly in the thigh area), causing a pronounced bumpy effect and extreme enlargement of the legs. It is usually a progressive disease that affects almost exclusively women and is closely related to hormonal changes during puberty, pregnancy, menopause or the use of contraception. It can also lead to disproportionate accumulation of fat in other parts of the body, such as the knees, calves or arms.
It is not yet known exactly why lipedema develops, but patients with this disease have an excess of fat cells in the affected areas. Despite the fact that it affects a huge number of women, many of them have never heard of the condition and think that it is just about the body.
“I feel stabbing pains all over my legs. No one can even touch them because it’s uncomfortable. I only wear jeans all year round because the thought of people seeing my legs scares me. I even stopped swimming because of it,” said a devastated Bella. After the diagnosis, Bella and Amanda began to learn more about the disease and soon discovered a special form of liposuction called Body-Jet.
But they were shocked to learn that the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) does not pay for the treatment. “We found a clinic in Salzburg, Austria, where this operation costs £6,500. Bella has to go through this, she is only 18 years old and it affects her quality of life a lot,” Amanda stated.
To help fund Bella’s surgery and necessary travel expenses, the mother launched a GoFundMe fundraiser in January of this year. So far, she has managed to raise more than £800 through it.
