Our mission is to provide support, raise awareness, and offer resources to women and their loved ones about Lipedema.
I’m excited you’ve found us – welcome to the journey, we’re only just beginning.
About Dr. Jonie Girouard, M.D.
It was whilst walking on a treadmill, I came across my first article specifically about Lipedema. It was a spring edition of the Obesity Action Coalition, and I remember looking up and asking my husband, Dr. Michael Girouard, “We see women with Lipedema all the time in the clinic and they are losing weight, so why does this article say they don’t?”
This moment was a turning point. Despite years of experience in weight loss medicine, I hadn’t separated out women with Lipedema into a “weight loss resistant” group. I was baffled and intrigued.
I later discovered I had been living with undiagnosed Lipedema myself and thought, “if I didn’t know about it, how many other millions of women don’t know.”
What started as a small social media presence and a few public events has grown into the Lipedema Clinic.
My journey into medicine began
with a degree in biomedical engineering, followed by medical school and a focus on family medicine. I quickly realized that excess body weight is a major factor in many chronic diseases.
I felt I needed to move beyond traditional treatments and embrace a more preventive approach. This led me to seek additional training in venous diseases, where I encountered women with Lipedema and Lymphedema daily and then on to specialize in weight loss medicine.
Advocacy & milestones
Turning a personal discovery into recognition for thousands.
Board Certified in Obesity Medicine
After training in family medicine and venous disease, Dr. Jonie completed her Board Certification in Obesity Medicine.
Relocated to New Zealand
Moved to New Zealand to continue researching and treating obesity — and the lipedema so often hidden within it.
ICD-10 recognition in NZ
After four years of advocacy, the NZ Ministry of Health recognised lipedema with ICD-10 coding.
From hotel conference rooms to a global community.
What started with small in-person events has grown into online webinars and training sessions for GPs and lymphoedema specialists — and a community of women supporting one another around the world. Lipedema Clinic keeps expanding, so no woman has to face lipedema without answers.