Christine Naim has always wanted children. But at 130 kilograms, weight-related health issues had shattered that dream.
"After the doctors were telling me, 'Oh, you're not going to be able to have children, you're not going to be able to have children,' it just made me feel like, 'There's no point continuing on with life, basically.'"
What a difference eight months have made.
Since Ms Naim had gastric surgery in September last year, she has lost almost 50 kilograms and is healthy and well.
The Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing's Jenny Hargreaves says research shows she is among a sharply rising number of people seeking surgery to lose weight.
"And we have found that the rates of surgery have gone up quite a lot over the last 10 years. So, in 2005-06, there were about 9,300 episodes of surgery in hospitals for weight-loss surgery. But in 2014/15, that number had gone up to 22,700 admissions for weight-loss surgery."
In 2015, 125,000 gastric procedures were billed to Medicare, costing $63 million.
Sydney gastrointestinal surgeon Dr David Martin says his patient numbers have increased over the past decade.
"We know that fasting diets don't work, unfortunately. Healthy diets are another thing. We live in an obesogenic society. You don't have to get out and move around all day. Access to sugar, which we crave, is very easy. And people getting out and about and doing healthy activity, as well as normal everyday transport and eating healthy food, is becoming more difficult."
The Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing found, in the decade to 2015, almost 80 per cent of those who had weight-loss surgery were women.
Most of them were between 34 and 44 years old.
That is despite the fact research shows more men are clinically obese than women.
Two in three Australians are clinically obese, but the appetite for surgery has grown a lot faster than the waistlines.
Dr Martin says that is because surgery is increasingly seen as a more attractive and less scary proposition.
"People are more aware of it -- from that respect, there's more of a need for it. We're more aware that the alternatives don't work as well. And, also, with larger volumes of patients coming through now, safer operations, with social media and patient interaction, people are more aware of the outcomes of surgery."
For patients like Christine Naim, the outcome of weight-loss surgery has been life-changing.
She says she is now looking forward to having a family of her own.
"I feel so good getting on those scales now. So good. Best thing ever. In September, when I had the surgery, I weighed 130 kilos. I'm now at 83 kilos and hoping to lose another 13 to be at my happy weight."
