LipeLight Lipedema, tracked properly

Are your joints extra bendy?

Five movements, nine points. It is called the Beighton score, and it is the same set of movements a doctor would try with you — so if you have wondered about this, or somebody has mentioned it to you, this gets you to the appointment with the answers already written down.

Anonymous. No name, no email, no account needed. About ten minutes. You will need a mirror and some floor.

Nothing is saved until you reach the end — if you close this tab you will lose it, and we would rather tell you that than keep a half-finished record of your body.

Why a lipoedema site is asking about your joints

Lipoedema and bendy joints turn up together often enough that a lot of clinics now ask about both. How often is genuinely unsettled — one Swiss clinic found it in about 4 in 100 of the women it saw, while some specialist centres put it far higher — and part of the reason for the gap is that these movements are harder to see and harder to do in a body that carries a lot of tissue on the limbs.

It is worth knowing about because it changes advice. If your joints move further than most people's, some exercise is better for you than others, some of it needs doing more slowly, and it can be part of why things ache in places nobody has connected up yet.

Go gently and stop if anything hurts. Nothing here is worth an injury, and a movement you had to stop is a useful thing to tell your doctor, not a gap. Do not push a joint past where it goes on its own, do not bounce, and skip anything you have been advised to leave alone.

Little finger

It bends backwards past a right angle.

Rest your forearm flat on a table, palm down and fingers relaxed. With your other hand, gently lift the little finger back towards the back of your hand. It counts if it goes past a right angle — straight up, and then further.

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Right

Thumb

It touches the inside of your forearm.

Hold one arm out in front of you, palm down, and let the wrist drop. With your other hand, gently press the thumb down and back towards the inside of your forearm. It counts only if the thumb actually touches — close does not count.

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Right

Elbow

It carries on past straight, so the arm curves backwards.

Hold your arm straight out in front of you, palm up, and let it straighten as far as it goes without pushing. Look at it side-on in a mirror. It counts if the forearm carries on past a straight line rather than stopping at one. If you genuinely cannot tell, say so — that is a better answer than a guess.

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Right

Knee

It carries on past straight, so the leg curves backwards.

Stand side-on to a mirror with your legs straight and your weight even. Let the knees settle back without forcing them. It counts if the knee goes past straight and the leg curves backwards behind the line of the thigh.

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Right

If there is a lot of tissue around your knees, the backwards curve can be there and simply not visible. If you cannot tell, say you could not try it rather than guessing at no.

Palms flat on the floor

Both palms rest flat on the floor with your knees straight.

Stand with your feet together and your knees straight, and bend forward. It counts only if both palms rest flat on the floor and your knees stay straight — fingertips do not count, and neither does a bent knee. Do not bounce, and stop if anything pulls.

This one is not only about your joints. Tissue on the thighs and the tummy can stop a body folding far enough to reach the floor while the back and the hips are moving perfectly well. If that is what is stopping you, it is worth saying so at the appointment — it is not the same finding as a stiff back.

Five more questions, about before

Joints stiffen with age, so what your hands did at fifteen matters even if they will not do it now. This set of five is the part of all this that was actually designed to be answered by you rather than by someone examining you — and doctors use it alongside the movements above.

Can you now, or could you ever, place your hands flat on the floor without bending your knees?

Can you now, or could you ever, bend your thumb back to touch your forearm?

As a child, did you amuse your friends by contorting your body into strange shapes, or could you do the splits?

As a child or a teenager, did your shoulder or your kneecap slip out of place more than once?

Do you consider yourself double-jointed?

One last thing

The number clinicians look for is different at different ages. You can skip this and the page will simply show you all three.

Nothing is saved until you tap that. You can leave any of the movements blank.