How common is lipedema? What the studies say and where the “one in three women” myth comes from

Search online for how many women have lipedema and you can find almost any figure — from “a rare disease” to “one woman in three”. Both extremes are wrong. Here we look at what the studies actually measured, why their results differ so much and what that means for you.

The short answer

There are no exact data on how common lipedema is — not for Europe, the United States or Ukraine. In 2026, experts from 19 countries agreed in the Lipedema World Alliance international consensus that the exact prevalence of lipedema in adult women is unknown, with estimates reaching 12% [1]. The figure quoted most often in reviews is about 10% [3].

Why the estimates differ so much

There are several reasons, and all of them are methodological:

• There is no objective test. Lipedema is diagnosed clinically — from the history, examination and exclusion of other conditions. No blood test, genetic test or imaging method is officially approved to confirm the diagnosis [1].
• Different definitions. Some studies count any disproportionate body shape; others count only cases with pain, bruising and the typical “cuff” of tissue above the ankle.
• Different samples. Patients of one dermatology department, an anonymous online survey and an examination of company employees produce completely different numbers.
• Lipedema is confused with obesity and lymphedema. Some cases therefore never appear in medical statistics at all.

The Lipedema Foundation, which funds lipedema research, stresses that the estimates vary widely, most come from European populations, and there are no uniform diagnostic criteria or coding. The true prevalence therefore remains unknown [5].

Where “one in three women” comes from

The 39% figure, often presented as “one in three”, comes from the German Lipödem-3 study of 2011 [2]. The authors examined 62 working women and performed a duplex ultrasound of the legs in each. The results were:

• 39% — when all grades were counted, including mild disproportionate fat enlargement (lipohypertrophy);
• 9.7% — moderate and marked forms with clearly enlarged ankles.

Today this approach is considered too broad. According to the international consensus, untreated lipedema is a symmetrical enlargement of subcutaneous fat in the limbs that is accompanied by pain or discomfort [1]. A disproportionate figure without pain, bruising or tenderness is not yet lipedema. So “one in three” describes the variety of women’s body shapes rather than the prevalence of a disease.

“About 10%”: the most common estimate

A review in the German medical journal Deutsches Ärzteblatt (2020) gives an estimated prevalence of about 10% of the female population [3]. Brazilian researchers reached a similar figure: on an online questionnaire, 12.3% of 253 women had symptoms that made lipedema highly likely [4].

The cautious and honest answer is therefore: lipedema is common — by the most widely cited estimate, it affects about one woman in ten.

Why diagnosis takes years

Even though lipedema is common, women find out about it very late. In a Dutch patient survey [6], the average time from the first symptoms to a diagnosis was 18 years.

In the same survey, 85.9% of women named easy bruising as a main complaint, and quality of life on the RAND-36 scale was markedly lower than the Dutch female average (59.3 vs 74.9 points) [6]. In a US study of 707 women with lipedema, more than half (52.2%) saw no improvement from diet or exercise [7]. That is why many are told for years to “just eat less” while the real cause of their symptoms goes unnoticed.

Lipedema research is growing fast

Fifteen years ago, about a dozen scientific papers on lipedema were published each year. We counted the publications in PubMed: there were 119 in 2025, and 175 in just the first ten months of 2026 [9].

Two developments explain the growth. First, on 1 January 2022 the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases came into effect, giving lipedema its own code, EF02.2 [8]. Second, the first large clinical trials and international consensus statements on diagnosis and treatment were published.

What is known about Ukraine

There are no data on the prevalence of lipedema in Ukraine. As of October 2026, PubMed contains no scientific publication on lipedema with authors from Ukraine or mentioning Ukraine in the text [9]. Ukraine was also not represented among the experts from 19 countries who developed the 2026 international consensus [1].

Any “Ukrainian” figures online are therefore European estimates applied to Ukraine. If the most common estimate of about 10% holds, lipedema may affect one Ukrainian woman in ten. Most of them probably do not yet know their diagnosis.

What this means for you

Lipedema is neither a rare disease nor “extra weight”. If your legs or arms are disproportionately large compared with your torso, the tissue hurts when pressed, you bruise easily and dieting barely changes the size of your legs, it is worth seeing a doctor who knows lipedema.

You can start with our short screening questionnaire: it takes two minutes and helps you see whether your symptoms resemble lipedema. We explain how the diagnosis is made in “Diagnosing lipedema”, and give an overview of the condition on “Lipedema: symptoms, stages, diagnosis and treatment”.