If you’re dealing with a health issue you can’t quite figure out, you’re likely searching online to try to find out what’s happening with your body. And if your TikTok feed includes health and weight-loss content, you’ve probably decided you have lipedema.
Doja Cat is with you. She shared in a TikTok video earlier this week that she had an “epiphany” that she has lipedema, a condition that causes fat to accumulate abnormally in the legs or arms. Doja said she suspects her mother has the condition, and she’s pored over online photos to figure things out. “I was probably at, like, stage one or stage two,” she said. “And it looks exactly like my legs.” Doja shared that she’s had liposuction (something she previously revealed back in 2023), which she hinted that she now regrets.
The comments of her post were filled with other people who said they think they have lipedema too. “When I first found out about lipedema and looked at my legs, I cried,” one commenter said. “If Doja has lipedema, maybe I’ll be alright.” Another offered this up: “I lost 100+ lbs and my legs looked the exact same, like I lost no weight from my lower half. It was all weight from my torso. I’m thinking I might have lipedema because there’s a lot of symptoms that line up with it.”
Lipedema is a huge topic on TikTok right now, but doctors who treat people with the condition say there’s a lot of misunderstanding surrounding it. Here’s what they want you to know.
1. Lipedema is more than fat buildup.
Lipedema is a chronic condition that causes abnormal fat buildup in the lower part of the body, according to the Cleveland Clinic. “Patients affected by lipedema typically have fat buildup in the lower extremities and sometimes the arms, while the hands, feet, and truncal areas are spared,” Mir Ali, MD, medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, tells SELF. “The area affected is typically disproportionate in size to the remainder of the body,” Eric Ascher, DO, family medicine physician at Northwell’s Lenox Hill Hospital, tells SELF.
People with the condition can also have a characteristic “cuff” of fat buildup near the ankles, Dr. Ali says.
But while abnormal fat distribution is a hallmark of the condition, there’s more to it than that. People with lipedema may notice bumps inside the fat that feels like there’s something under your skin, along with skin that bruises easily, and a heavy feeling in your legs, per the Cleveland Clinic.
