To gain an in-depth understanding of the pre-operative stigma experience in patients with bariatric and metabolic surgery for providing a reference to improve the patient's confidence in surgery and the quality of postoperative self-management.

Using qualitative research and semi-structured interviews, nine patients were selected as the research participants who were to undergo bariatric and metabolic surgery in a tertiary hospital in Beijing.

The preoperative symptom experience of patients before bariatric and metabolic surgery were summarized into 4 themes. Theme 1: Disease related stigma experience, including regret and guilt, inferiority complex, discrimination experience, worry and anxiety; Theme 2: Stigma sources, including patient themselves, and other people such as, relatives and colleagues and colleagues, medical staff, and the public; Theme 3: Coping with stigma, including reducing social activities or even concealment and avoidance, and holding a positive attitude toward bariatric and metabolic surgery; Theme 4: Attitude toward the effect of surgery on weight loss, including trust the surgery effect with recommendation by other people, and attemptation yet with little knowledge about the metabolic surgery.

Patients with bariatric and metabolic surgery experienced stigma before surgery. Healthcare providers should provide them with corresponding psychological support and guide them to respond correctly. In the meantime, healthcare provides need to a good job in social health education and strengthen the public’s awareness of obesity and metabolic diseases. Understand and correctly understand the role of weight loss metabolic surgery in the treatment of obesity and metabolic diseases.