A Strictly Come Dancing star has spoken of her pain at being called “thunder thighs” by online trolls.
Professional dancer Amy Dowden takes eight steroids a day to treat her Crohn's disease and this treatment can dramatically affect how she looks.
As well as putting on weight, she said that she can get swollen eyes, mouth ulcers, spots, bloating and a puffy face as a result of her condition and medication.
“When people online say 'she has thunder thighs', it hurts,” she told the BBC. “I've been dancing since I was eight years old and dance is part of who I am - but so too is Crohn's, which I've had since I was 11.”
Crohn's is a chronic autoimmune disorder where the body’s immune system attacks part of the digestive system leading to inflammation.
There is no cure but there are various treatments to try and manage the condition, with steroids one such method. However, they come with a host of side effects.
“Some of the symptoms and medication can have an effect on the way I look - it's something I've been body shamed about and that hurts,” Ms Dowden said. “I have experienced body shaming. I take steroids and it makes me put on weight.”
Flare-ups are “frustrating and annoying”, the 32-year-old said, adding that negative comments from strangers make it harder to deal with her health.
She recalled an episode of “guinea pig face” during one dance competition when she was around 20, triggered by a bout of Crohn's-induced weight gain, and was subjected to negative comments about her body.
“This professional dancer shouted out 'she's got a fat bottom' and a 'thick middle',” Ms Dowden wrote. “That comment has stayed with me for the rest of my life and when I go on steroids, it's the first thing I hear.
“She didn't know what I'd been through and instead of dancing I just wanted to run off and cry. "I got through the dance but that lady doesn't realise that line she said, I'm still talking about it now more than 10 years later.”
She compared body shaming and online abuse to hammering a nail into a piece of wood.
“Even if you took the nails out, there's still a dent left in that piece of wood. Every time you say a nasty comment to somebody, you're leaving a dent inside of them,” Ms Dowden wrote.
She was partnered with EastEnders actor James Bye in this year's show and was the fifth couple to be eliminated.
The dancer has now set up a new podcast called Amy Dowden: Body Shaming and Me on BBC Sounds where she talks to other people with invisible illnesses about their own experiences of body shaming.
