My gastric band operation left me with smelly loose skin and boobs like UDDERS – it’s ruined my sex life
A grandma has claimed her gastric band operation left her with "smelly loose skin" and breasts that "look like udders".
Mum-of-two Claudette Hawkins, 59, from New York, was once size 36 and weighed 22 stone 8 pounds.
Claudette opted for a gastric band four years ago and has now shrunk to a petite size ten.
But her skin has been left so saggy she refuses to have sex with her husband or even look in a mirror.
Her skin pulls painfully and "there's a funky smell".
She said: "It's horrendous. The tops of my legs are like elephant stumps, they're very heavy with the skin hanging there."
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Claudette first piled on the pounds aged 19 after having her first child.
She was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2006 and put on more weight when she had to have the gland removed.
The thyroid is responsible for managing the body's metabolism, which has a huge impact on weight gain.
After entering remission in 2016 she decided she needed to make a major change.
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She could "barely walk up the stairs to her apartment" and wanted to be able to play with her granddaughter.
Claudette got her gastric sleeve in 2019 and her weight quickly dropped to 11st 9lbs.
A gastric sleeve is when a large part of the stomach is removed so it's much smaller than it was before.
After the surgery Claudette was told she might face sagging skin because of the speed of her weight loss.
She was told exercise would help.
Yet Claudette was so unfit she found any movement incredibly difficult.
And she has been left with painfully heavy skin as a result.
She's now hoping to raise enough money for loose skin removal surgery so she can move on with her life.
What’s the difference between a gastric bypass, band and sleeve?
WEIGHT loss surgery is used to treat people who are dangerously obese.
Most types involve cutting off a section of the stomach so it can't digest as much food at one time.
When coupled with exercise and a healthy diet, weight loss surgery has been found to be effective in dramatically reducing a patient's excess body fat.
Recent research in the United States found that people with gastric bands lose around half of their excess body weight.
Meanwhile gastric bypasses reduce this excess body weight by two thirds post-op.
However, it's not always successful - and patients still need to take responsibility for eating well and working out.
What is the difference between a gastric band, bypass and sleeve?
The three most widely used types of weight loss surgery are:
- Gastric band: Where a band is used to reduce the stomach's size, meaning you will feel full after eating a reduced amount of food
- Gastric bypass: Where your digestive system is re-routed past stomach, so you digest less food and it takes less to make you feel full
- Sleeve gastrectomy: Where some of the stomach is removed, to reduce the amount of food required to make you feel full
