The operation - which has existed in some form for nearly a century - is typically performed on those wounded in military service or car crashes. Photo / 123RF
Hundreds of men around the world are opting to undergo a "sick" and "life-altering" procedure in a drastic effort to make themselves taller.
Speaking to Buzzfeed News this week, Los Angeles man Scott (not his real name), explained why he sought out a surgeon who could permanently lengthen his legs.
The operation – which has existed in some form for nearly a century – is typically performed on those wounded in military service or car crashes, often as a way to correct mismatched leg lengths.
But in the last 15 years, it's increasingly been sought for elective and cosmetic ends by men frustrated by how they're treated because of their height.
"It's become a big part of my practice. It's the thing most people are interested in. That's where I get most of my consultations," California-based orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Shahab Mahboubian, told Buzzfeed, adding he'd seen a marked increase in surgeries during the pandemic.
Dr Mahboubian, who performs about 30 to 40 of these surgeries each year – including Scott's – has become the go-to when it comes to the procedure, boasting more than 45,000 followers on Instagram and another 50,000 on TikTok, where he posts under the handle @heightlengthening.
While there has been an increase in those seeking the operation electively, he told the publication he was hesitant to put it in the same category as other cosmetic surgeries – like a rhinoplasty or boob job, despite calls from those who have undergone it to perceive it in that way.
"This is life-altering. It really changes people's lives," Dr Mahboubian said.
"Their whole outlook on life, the way people perceive them, the way they feel about themselves. It really affects all aspects of their life."
Before Scott's surgery in January, he was 5'7", and said he was constantly ridiculed because of his stature.
"I was not treated with respect. At every single workplace I've been in, there've been several situations where people commented on my height to discredit me entirely as a person," the 25-year-old recalled.
That, coupled with demeaning social media and pop culture discourse about men of a lesser stature being "garden gnomes", drove him to seek out the $75,000 procedure.
A recent University of Chicago and MIT study about "mate preferences and matching outcomes in online dating" found that shorter men need to earn more money to be deemed equally attractive to taller men.
Even the recent celebration of "short kings" online – particularly on TikTok – wasn't enough to change Scott's mind.
The term – coined by comedian Jaboukie Young-White in a viral 2018 tweet – did the rounds on the platform last year by way of a viral trend where women labelled their tall boyfriends "short king" and filmed their reactions.
It revealed the "deeply-rooted insecurities from tall men", Laura Pitcher wrote for i-Din a piece earlier this year, but was "then reclaimed by short men themselves on the app".
But Scott doesn't buy it.
"It bothers me," he said, "because if they accomplished the same accomplishments but weren't short, you'd just say, 'You're a king'. So why are we bringing height into it?"
And so he sought out the procedure.
"I felt miserable. There were things throughout the day, every day, that would bother me," Scott said.
"When I realised what was really holding me back was the obstacle of money, I was like, 'Oh, it's just a game. If I can get $75,000, then I'm done feeling like this'."
The surgery is not for the faint-hearted – while Dr Mahboubian described it as "minimally invasive", it involves cutting the bones in the leg to then insert a rod "that goes inside the bone".
"The rod is magnetic and it has gears. Then there's an external device that communicates with the nail. And over time, little by little, it lengthens out the nail," he explained.
Asked if the broken bone is the most painful part of the recovery process, he said it causes "swelling around that area, but that goes away after a few days".
"Then there's the lengthening pain, which is a stretching type of pain," Dr Mahboubian added.
"But it's tolerable because it's done very slowly."
For Scott, it was a small price to pay, and after the week-long lengthening process, he now stands three inches taller, at 5'10".
Now he, and other men who have voluntarily undergone the procedure, are working to overturn the stigma that they face.
"I'm trying to show that, for the guys who the surgery means a lot to, it should be as accepted as a woman getting a boob job or a nose job or something like that," Victor Egonu, who hosts the Limb Lengthening Podcast and underwent the surgery to even the length of his legs after a childhood car accident, told Buzzfeed.
"If the world can see and not necessarily empathise, but sympathise with some of the pain these guys may be going through, maybe people can not judge them for what they're doing to fix their lives."