As anyone with a passing familiarity with dating apps can attest, height is a big deal for men. For all the recent championing of “short kings” (here’s looking at you, Tom Holland), being short-statured remains a major insecurity for many.
While some deal with this by say, stretching the truth on Hinge, others are resorting to the far more drastic measure of literally adding height to their body by lengthening their legs through surgery. Here’s why men in particular might be motivated to undergo such an extreme procedure — and what that procedure entails.
A social minefield
According to Ash & Erie, a clothing company dedicated to dressing shorter men, 80% of men admitted to lying about their height on dating apps. An incredible 90% believed that their height — or rather, their lack thereof — impeded their romantic prospects, as they felt taller women wouldn’t give them a chance. A 2010 survey by OkCupid found that most men using the site added roughly two inches to their height.
The assumption that men fudge the truth (and that taller men are more desirable) has become so ubiquitous that a TikTok user went viral last year for a post that showed her holding a measuring tape and pen next to her front door, so that she could check her Hinge dates and make they were at least six feet tall. Her caption read: “You must be at least this tall to ride.”
There’s also evidence that taller men tend to earn more than their shorter peers (the same’s true of women, to a slightly lesser degree): A 2004 study found that a 6-foot person was predicted to earn $166,000 more over a 30-year career than a 5’5″ person. A British study from 2016 found that for every three inches taller a man is, he’ll earn £1,500 (about $1,870) more annually. It wasn’t clear from the findings whether this was due to factors like lower self-esteem or employer discrimination, but the correlation between height and income was clear.
More broadly, life just seems easier for tall men: Shorter men “routinely get spoken down to just because of this trait that they can’t control,” one man named Alex who was 5’7 pre-surgery, told NBC News.
Growing in popularity
Dr. Shahab Mahboubian, a surgeon at the Height Lengthening Institute in California, told NBC News that despite how invasive and expensive it is, leg-lengthening has become a far more popular option over the last five years than ever before.
“I even have 60-65-year-old guys that have come to me to undergo the procedure because it just doesn’t stop. The ‘short’ jokes keep going on and they feel inferior,” he said.
Mahboubian operated on Alex (the man who said he feels “spoken down to”) to eventually raise his height to 5’10”. The doctor told NBC that he expects to perform 50 such surgeries this year — more than double the annual figure he hit three years ago.
The procedure itself
Leg-lengthening surgery, which originated as a means of “evening out” limbs that were different lengths, takes about four hours. During the procedure, the leg bones are broken, and metal rods or nails are inserted. Over the following several months, these rods are lengthened using a remote magnetic device by about one millimeter per day. Gradually, new bone grows over the rods. After about a year, the rods can be removed in a separate procedure.
Intensive rehabilitation
Obviously, growing new bone is no joke, but that’s not all the body has to contend with after the initial operation. As the rods inside the patient’s legs are lengthened post-surgery, the soft tissues in the legs — muscles, veins, arteries, nerves, and more — are also being stretched, which besides being painful in and of itself, can cause major tightness in the hips and legs. Patients must undergo physical therapy between three and five times per week to support their bodies throughout this process.
Patients should also be prepared for their usual routines to take a major hit. It’s not possible to travel for work for an extended period, and they can expect to use a walker for months. Given the need to concentrate on regaining strength and flexibility, patients should anticipate being off work for some time. Even a small stumble can snap a healing bone, so they must also be extremely careful when they’re moving around in any way.
Habits like smoking can also be seriously detrimental to bone development, so patients are advised to quit at least a month before their surgery. Mahboubian also told Business Insider that given the powerful pain medications patients are obliged to take throughout this process, they must abstain from drinking alcohol too.
A few potential stumbling blocks
It’s worth noting that the surge in favor of leg-lengthening has come despite the fact that the surgery is relatively inaccessible: Depending on how much height a patient is hoping to gain, leg-lengthening costs between $70,000 and $150,000 (Alex told NBC he estimated he spent $100,000, all told), and it’s unlikely to be covered by insurance.
Also, there’s a limit to how much height it’s possible to add. As Mahboubian explained to Business Insider: “If you’re much shorter, let’s say five feet tall, you’re probably not going to get the full six additional inches.”
“You’re asking a lot of a body, compared to someone who’s five-foot-seven and is trying to get six inches taller, the percentage of how much your body is capable of growing,” he said.
Most authorities agree that two inches is the maximum growth most patients can expect from one leg-lengthening cycle, although a few patients may achieve more. Patients shooting for an ambitious six extra inches aren’t able to achieve this in a single surgery: To achieve that much extra height, they have to undergo one operation to lengthen the femurs above the knee, and a second to lengthen the tibias (which most of us recognize as our shins) below.
