According to new research, Women are more inclined to undergo weight-loss surgery than Men. According to a new study, 80% of all weight-loss surgery patients are female in the United States. By our numbers, over 85% of Mexico Bariatric Center’s patients, who undergo weight loss surgery, are women.

Possible Causes of Disparity

  • One possible explanation according to the study authors is that women have a greater awareness of the risks of obesity.
  • Another reason purported by the perpetrators claims that women are much more concerned about their appearance and less satisfied with their health.

Another possible cause, or an additional cause, is that women may be more dissatisfied with their bodies and body image. Promoting a quicker and more proactive response to their obesity. In fact, “men tend to wait until they get older… before considering the option,” showing women may be the only ones who are actively searching for alternative options to reduce their obesity.

“The results of this study should raise awareness in men about the complications that obesity brings to their health,” senior study author Dr. Santiago Horgan, chief of the division of minimally invasive surgery at the University of California, San Diego, said in a university news release.

The study was published in the Journal of Laparoendoscopic & Advanced Surgical Techniques.

Source (HealthDay)

While both men and women get weight loss surgery, recent studies show a significant difference between the sexes. It shows women are about four times more likely to get weight loss surgery than men are. There are many reasons for this, including men of the same age being more obese and less physically healthy enough to get surgery, as well as women simply having the trend of getting weight loss surgery or plastic surgery more often than men. The studies also show that lower-income individuals, especially women, are more likely to need weight loss surgery procedures.

Also Related: Mexico Cosmetic Center (owned by Mexico Bariatric Center)

The Study

This study on men and women getting weight-loss surgery was published in the Surgical Endoscopy journal. It looked at a total of 1,400 patients of men and women who had weight loss surgery at UC Davis between the years 2002 and 2006. The recent statistics showed that 82 percent of the patients in this study were women, but that’s not all it showed.

Through this study, researchers found that men had more of the expected health problems that come from obesity, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, metabolic syndrome, or a higher risk of heart disease. For example, 72 percent of the men in the study struggled with sleep apnea, while only 46 percent of women had it. The numbers for the risk of heart disease were closer between genders, at 21 percent of males to 15 percent of women. It was also found that men on average had a higher body mass index (BMI) averaging 49, whereas the average for women was 47. As a resource, a BMI over 40 is severely obese.

Some other noticeable differences between genders are that the ages of men seemed to be slightly older when they were willing to get weight loss surgery, about two years older. Men were more likely to be over 50, according to this study. Though through the entire study, only 14% of the participants were men.

Low-Income Women More Likely to Get Surgery

Another study that compared men versus women who were getting weight loss surgery showed that lower-income women were also more willing to get or even need the surgery. This study was done with 9,500 people who were candidates for weight loss surgery. The study looked at people who were in the morbidly obese category and at risk of losing their life, or who had another serious condition caused by their obesity, such as high blood pressure or Type II Diabetes. The study showed the biggest trend of people needing weight loss surgery were retired women who were in a lower socioeconomic level.

Because of this latter study, women who were struggling financially were less likely to get surgery, since they could not afford it. Health insurance does not usually cover weight loss surgery and costs typically thousands of dollars for deductibles. However, among patients who did get surgery, significantly more participants were women than men. These statistics don’t necessarily show women need surgery more than men, but they are more willing to go through the surgery to lose weight, whether to improve their appearance or get healthier on physical or emotional levels. It is not that surprising considering women are also much more likely to get plastic surgery or cosmetic surgery.

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