Tens of thousands of dollars…
Excruciating pain…
Possible permanent disfigurement…
6 months to a full year wearing leg braces…
All to gain a few inches of height.
But is it worth it? Some people think so, as its one of the fastest-growing cosmetic procedures in the world today.
And its popularity is booming.
It is entirely true that leg lengthening surgery will make you several inches taller – albeit slowly and painfully – but at what point to you weigh the pros verses the immense cons and realize that the negative factors as well as the relatively high risk of disabling side effects wipe out any of that benefit?
Leg lengthening surgery, at its basic form, is performed at a handful of facilities around the world. The United States has a few, as well as Russia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, and India. Perhaps not surprisingly, the procedure’s popularity is increasing the most in countries where the native population is predominately shorter because they are of Asian descent: Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.
China banned leg lengthening surgery after a slew of botched procedures that left the patients racked with physical pain and mental anguish. Permanent physical disfigurement from the procedure was alarmingly high and growing at an even more alarming rate before China’s Health Ministry placed the ban in 2006.
Most television and online interviews with patients that have undergone leg lengthening surgery that I’ve watched and read state that they feel pressured to grow taller not because they are necessarily unhappy about their appearance, but because they believe that being taller will help their professional careers. People from China and South Korea seem to be particularly motivated to increase their height because modern societal pressures equate a person’s height to their abilities.
The issue of height equating mental or professional ability is, of course, nonsense, but this sort of heightism has existed for…well, probably forever. And sadly, it’s one kind of discrimination that doesn’t seem to be following the trend of political correctness. Simply put, it’s fairly widely accepted, or at least tolerated.
But what bothers me most of all about leg lengthening surgery is that there doesn’t appear to be any sort of progression of treatment being advised to potential patients by the surgeons administering the surgery or by anyone else. For example, for almost any other surgical procedure, any ethical physician will first weigh the potential consequences of surgery against the possibility that a less invasive means of treatment will be successful first. A heart surgeon wouldn’t operate on a patient with high blood pressure if the patient was able to lower his blood pressure by shifting to a healthier diet and lifestyle and taking prescription medication. A cancer specialist wouldn’t likely recommend someone for surgery unless chemotherapy and other measures were not first tried and shown to be unsuccessful or at least not feasible.
And those are life-threatening conditions!
It boggles the mind to know that these physicians are wheeling people into surgery without advising them of safer and much less invasive techniques. One has to just read the Grow Taller Blog enough to know that I’m living proof.
It is entirely possible to gain up to 4 inches in height naturally, safely and effectively in just a few short months without scary surgery. I implore anyone considering leg-lengthening surgery to please give the Grow Taller Book a try before jumping into surgery that can cost in excess of $100,000, is nothing short of crippling for up to a full year, and – as even the surgeons will point out – can be debilitatingly painful. You can try the Grow Taller Book for just a single payment of $77.
It really doesn’t seem like a tough decision to me. But it’s yours to make. As always, I’m here to offer unbiased advice and whatever help I can.
To your taller, healthier life…
Hayden Carter, Author of the Grow Taller Blog and Grow Taller Book
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