I was serioulsy considering bypass surgery. Went to my consultation, got my insurance approval, yet something didn't feel quite right. I spent months on the internet researching this particular surgery and what I found was alarming. There is absolutely NO long term data on the effects of this surgery. None at all. The longest term data I could find was 13 years, and by the end of that 13 years 20% of the people who had undergone this surgery had died. Of the remaining 80% some were suffering from severe malnutrition, depression, bone loss and many other illments. The suicide rate is also extremely high for post-ops.

In my opinion many people who undergo this surgery are literally willing to die to be skinny. Fine.....I am not. And like a previous poster said, when I read what a typical recommended post-op menu looked like, I was surprised to see it looked very much like a low carb diet. Why not just do that and skip the surgery? Also, weight gain is also fairly common after this weight loss surgery. The surgery is considered a success if a person loses 50% of his/her excess weight. Considering the fact that most people then gain about 20% back, it seems like a small weight loss with extremely high associated risks (including the loss of the spleen etc).

Here are some other risks associtaed with this surgery (and these risks are published by a surgeon FOR this surgery.....there is a lot of research out that in my opinion tells a more scary story but that is hushed by gastric bypass surgeons):
risks of gastric bypass