Dr. Ellen K Sternenberger, MD

I saw her for unexplained nausea and she immediately told me it was cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome because I smoked weed at the time to cope with my nausea. My nausea began before the weed use and when I told her that she became visibly annoyed. I told her that quitting marijuana wasn’t possible at the moment because of the severity of my nausea; I had lost 20 pounds in two weeks due to inability to eat when I last stopped smoking. She responded with “Well, you can lose twenty pounds; you’re overweight.” I am 5’7” and 150 pounds, putting me at a BMI of around 25, which is the cutoff between healthy and overweight. Besides the fact that BMI is known to be inaccurate, especially for women, and the fact that she did not have my growth chart, losing 20 pounds in two weeks due to inability to eat is.... not healthy for anyone, including overweight people. She did not diagnose me correctly, she did not listen to my experiences, and she was rude to me for the rest of my visit, in addition… to the blatant fatphobia. It’s truly concerning that people like her are doctors; she’s clearly not in it to help people if she’s not listening to her patients.