She was fat-shamed and told she had “tree-trunk legs” — but it turned out to be an unknown medical condition.
For as long as Emma Martin, 23, can remember, her legs have always been out of proportion to her body — no matter how healthily she ate or how much she exercised.
Frustrated, the trainee solicitor went to her doctor, claiming they told her to “just lose weight” and “stop eating crisps and cake.”
“I was still quite small and 9 stone but they said I should just eat better,” the UK woman told SWNS. “It made me feel like it was my fault, I just thought I was always bigger.”
Martin recalled coming home from high school as a teenager, upset that she was a different size from her peers.
“I used to get a few comments at school, people were like why are your legs bigger than mine and I got called tree trunk legs,” she remembered. “I was so upset about it to my mom after school and asking her ‘why have I got much bigger legs than my friends?'”
Desperate to try and slim down her legs, Martin hired a personal trainer when she left school, saying she got “an awful lot smaller” and toned up in other areas of her body, but her legs remained the same size.
“I’d find basic exercises really tiring or get out of breath really quick,” she said.
The young woman admitted she thought her fat pooled in her legs, continuing her intense exercise regime, noting her legs were sore and achy and she would bruise easily.
It wasn’t until she stumbled across a tweet from UK “Love Island” contestant Shaughna Phillips talking about a condition she suffers from called Lipoedema — along with a picture — that Martin realized her condition might be medical.
After going down a “rabbit hole of research,” Martin was finally diagnosed with the condition last year at age 22.
According to the NHS, Lipoedema is a long-term (chronic) condition of fat and connective tissue which builds up in your legs, hips, bottom and sometimes arms, affecting both sides of the body equally. In the US, it’s estimated to affect 1 in 9 adult women.
Although thrilled to know it’s a medical condition, unfortunately for Martin, the treatments available are not covered by insurance, noting the condition is not really recognized by the health bodies until “it gets to the last stages where you’re immobile.”
“[Other countries are] more advanced with it, so my specialist was in Madrid and it took him five minutes to confirm it was Lipoedema,” she explained.
The only way to remove the excess fat on her legs is through a form of liposuction, but it’s not the same method that they use to remove fat from the stomach.
Determined to feel better about herself, she’s flown to Madrid twice to receive preventive surgery for her condition, and she plans to go for further surgery to remove the excess fat and tissue in June — spending over $17,000 on the surgeries so far, with plans to undergo two other procedures that will cost over $5,500 each.
“I’m probably one of the youngest that’s had it done,” she admitted.
However, Martin says people often judge her for the surgeries, thinking she is traveling overseas purely for cosmetic reasons.
“My size is not my fault, people think I am having surgery for cosmetic reasons, but it is a preventative surgery,” she pointed out. “When you tell people, they think it’s the same as going to Turkey and getting your teeth done.”
Martin, who is engaged to boyfriend Cameron Dipple, 24, gushed about how her life has changed since her diagnosis and treatment, and she’s lot more confident.
“Since my diagnosis last year, I felt like I’m not going to bother covering up my legs anymore and I started wearing clothes I wouldn’t normally wear,” she said excitedly.
The blushing bride-to-be says she is hoping she’ll be fully healed by the time she walks down the aisle next August.
“I can wear the dress and shoes I’ve always dreamed of,” she quipped.
“At least I know now it wasn’t my fault,” she added. “I feel an awful lot better, I’m lighter and wear what I want and do more things.”
