‘I spent £10k on weight loss surgery and dropped six dress sizes but wish I'd never done it’

A woman who dropped six dress sizes after spending thousands of pounds on weight loss surgery has said she wishes she hadn’t done it.

Leah Lazarus, a 39-year-old mother-of-two from Loughton, Essex, said she feels “like a child” because of her small frame after she went from a size 14 to size 4 in only four months.

Before undergoing a gastric sleeve procedure in May 2022, during which more than half of her stomach was removed, Lazarus said she struggled with her weight and wanted to achieve a “dream hourglass figure”.

But after dropping nearly five stone in four months since the surgery - going from 12st 12lb to 7st 7lb - Lazarus now regrets her decision and said she does not feel like an adult woman in her body.

At a UK size four, she has to wear children’s clothes and said people at work don’t recognise her.

Explaining why she opted for the serious surgery, the aesthetics technician explained: “Like most women, I’ve never been happy with my body because of ever-changing beauty standards.

"I wanted to get surgery, but I didn't want to go abroad because of horror stories. I felt confident in the private hospital I chose but as soon as I woke up from surgery, I knew something was wrong because I was in unbearable pain.”

Lazarus claimed that following the surgery, she “spoke to a medic once and never heard from them again”. "After that, the weight started dropping off me because I wasn't able to keep anything down. My body is completely different now and I feel like a child, not a woman.”

She added that she felt “devastated” by the change her body has gone through because she spent “a chunk of savings” on the procedure that “sold a dream”. “Now I feel stupid,” she said.

Lazarus said her relationship with food was normal when she was growing up, but when she got a job in the aesthetics industry, she felt pressure to “look a certain way”.

She started researching gastric procedures in April 2022 and came across a private hospital offering the surgery. She went under the knife the following month, but woke up in terrible pain and could not keep any food or water down.

She said she was discharged from the hospital just 24 hours after the surgery and tried to recover at home, where she lives with her fiance Antony Beacon, a 39-year-old carer, and their teenage children, Savannah, 17, and Kingston, 15.

Read more: 12 expert-approved weight loss tips good for both body and mind (Yahoo Life UK, 7-min read)

Lazarus claimed that a week after the procedure, she “went blind” and “was in total agony”.

''I went to hospital and they thought I had a leak in my tummy but couldn't be sure, it was so scary,” she said. "I thought I was going to die but all I could think about were my children.

"I felt guilty for being selfish and having the surgery. I'd spent a lot of money on surgery that had left me unable to work and the expensive medical bills that followed. I wasn't able to keep anything down because I was in so much pain, but it was also because I was worried out of my mind about my children.”

She added that she felt “weak and emotionally exhausted” by the thought that she might “never see my family again”.

Lazarus said she spent two weeks in hospital under observation and returned home after, but her condition worsened and she claimed that she struggled to walk.

From June to August 2022, Lazarus continued going in and out ot Homerton University Hospital in Hackney, east London. She claimed that doctors there believed she suffered a stomach rupture but were unable to treat her because of scar tissue around the gastric sleeve that was still healing.

She also claimed that she had to battle sepsis, which can be deadly if not caught and treated quickly, as well as kidney stones due to the weight loss surgery.

In a bid to fix the damage, Lazarus said she went to another private clinic and a doctor there suggested a half bypass procedure that cost £6,700 to fix the stomach rupture. On 9 August 2022, Lazarus underwent the two-hour surgery and spent three days recovering in hospital.

"I didn't want any more surgery but it was the only way to patch up the hole I'd been left from the sleeve,'' she said. "The second private hospital were helpful and really understanding - a complete contrast to what I'd been through.''

But now that she has recovered from her multiple medical ordeals, Lazarus said she is more unhappy than she has ever been with her body.

Despite looking “slim in clothes”, Lazarus said she doesn’t “feel womanly”, adding that she now has loose skin from losing weight so quickly as well as scars on her stomach that are a “constant reminder of everything I’ve been through”.

"My fiancé says I look amazing no matter what, but it doesn't really help because I feel so rubbish inside,” she admitted. "I opted for a UK private hospital because I thought I'd be in the best hands. But little did I know it was the beginning of hell.

"I'm stuck like this now - I'd never have any more surgery, or the bypass reversed because hospitals give me PTSD now. All I can do is just be thankful I'm still with my family and learn from it all.”

Lazarus continued: "I wish I'd never had weight loss surgery. I've lost a lot of savings and I'm the least body confident I've ever been."

Read more: Woman sees 4st weight loss after ditching secret eating habit (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)

Weight loss surgery, also known as bariatric or metabolic surgery, is usually only used as treatment for people who are very obese, according to the NHS. “It’s a major operation and in most cases should only be considered after trying to lose weight through a healthy diet and exercise,” the NHS website says.

According to a 2020 report by the UK National Bariatric Surgery Registry, the number of procedures performed each year is around 6,000 to 7,000. The report also described the surgery as having “exceptional safety”, with an overall complication rate of approximately 2.4%.

Following the surgery, the NHS advises patients that they need to “commit to making permanent lifestyle changes… to avoid putting weight back on”. These include changing your diet, exercising regularly and attending regular follow-up appointments, as well as avoiding pregnancy during the first 12 to 18 months after the surgery.

Reporting by SWNS