It’s a procedure that’s entered the headlines after it was revealed Pedro Pascal‘s character in the recent film Materialists had a leg lengthening surgery to be taller.
In the film, New York City matchmaker Lucy, played by Dakota Johnson, discovers that many men don’t tell the truth about their height.
When her colleague says men get leg lengthening procedures to be taller she’s taken aback that they would resort to such drastic measures.
But these scenarios happen off-screen, too; thousands of men, undeterred by the brutal surgery and crippling recovery, travel to the Turkish city of Istanbul and hand over tens of thousands of pounds to add a few precious inches to their stature at clinics such as Make Me Taller.
In a new report published in The Guardian, they meet Frank, 38, a patient at the clinic, who decided he was willing to get the medieval sounding procedure to gain four inches on his 5″6 frame.
He was inspired to book in with the clinic after feeling he had lived his life as a ‘short man’.
The first step involved cutting his leg in half to allow a device to be implanted to separate the two ends of the sawn off bone.
It leaves a space for new bone growth to take place, which is also monitored through several surgeries.
The lengthening process involves a surgery to implant a device that allows a key to be turned to separate the bones to create room for new bone to grow, helping them become taller
Of the ordeal, he told the outlet: ‘Sometimes the nerve pain wrecks me’. But he endured it because he is proud of being a self-starter, having a ‘self made’ tattoo on his knuckles.
Next is the lengthening process, which sees a small key inserted into the device on his thigh that is slowly turned, a painful millimetre at a time, which forces the bones apart and creates space for new bone to grow.
If he can endure five turns of the key each daily, Frank could gain slightly over a millimetre a day.
At the end of 10 weeks, he would stand at 5ft 9 in, the average height of a man.
‘I’m making my own height, choosing how tall I want to be. I’m very ambitious. If I want something, I go for it. Until I do it, it almost torments me,’ he said.
In three months’ time he will underdog a third surgery to remove the device from his thigh but before then comes a lengthy recovery to ensure that their body can handle the new bones.
This involves daily physiotherapy to learn to walk again, massages, blood thinners, and a considerable number of painkillers.
It also comes with risks, some life-threatening, including blood clots, joint issues, blood vessel injuries, chronic pain, ballerina syndrome—when the feet are forced into an exaggerated arch preventing walking, and even no failure for bone growth.
An example of a patient before (left) the surgery who was nearly five inches taller after (right)
However, the clinic where he was treated, which claims to have treated over 700 patients in the past decade, says the risks tend to come from patients not adhering to their strict aftercare routines.
But none of this deterred Frank, who despite choosing a cheaper option paid $32,000 (£24,000), and it didn’t matter that it took a big dent in the newlyweds funds that they had planned to put towards a down payment for a mortgage.
It was during their honeymoon that he decided he wanted to be taller than his wife, Emilia, who is 5ft 5 in.
And after months of travelling across Asia, Emilia said: ‘Having food, a comfortable bed—that’s real happiness. After that, if it’s buying a house, we’ll go for it. And if it’s breaking your legs and being taller, go for it’
But it isn’t just people who want to be taller getting these surgeries. The Wanna Be Taller clinic in Istanbul, where Frank was treated, also offer leg shortening procedures, which ten people have had so far, mostly women.
However, one patient at the clinic, previously 5ft 3in, who was a rare woman getting a leg-lengthening surgery, to be two inches taller. She told The Guardian that shortness ‘is the last acceptable prejudice in society’.
Leg lengthening surgery is regarded as one of the most painful cosmetic procedures you can have.
Last year, a Colombian influencer—who paid $175,000 to grow from 5ft 8in to 6ft—said he has been left in constant excruciating pain.
Yeferson Cossio, 29, claimed that the implanted metal rods had caused him so much pain has become so bad he feels he will collapse and was desperate to take them out.
Mr Cossio, who has 11.1million followers on Instagram, said: ‘I have tried sleeping pills, but they don’t work for me. The pain wakes me up and I feel devastated.’
‘Maybe there is going to come a point where my body will collapse and I will no longer be able to cope with the pain or anything.’
Though expensive, plastic surgeons estimate the number of men undergoing this surgery has doubled in the past few years.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .