Is Limb Lengthening Surgery Worth It?

Is it worth it?

Just like other aspects of leg lengthening there are several factors that you need to consider in order to answer this question but I’m going to focus on the 5 most important which are:

Time, Money, Social, Risk, & Happiness. 

Time

Voluntarily breaking your legs to get taller is no easy feat. Not only are you agreeing to a painful and meticulous process but you are doing so for several months on end. Now, if you are the type of person who is all about fast results and lacks the patience to put in the work to make something good come about (like getting taller!), then you shouldn’t put yourself through such an arduous procedure and instead opt for more conservative methods like shoe lifts (which I’ll make a post about sometime).

Money

I’ve made a video a while back about how much leg lengthening surgery costs and to summarize you’re looking at $80k to 110k+ here in the US and between $30k to $90k internationally per set of leg bones. This means if you want to maximize your height gain and do both sets of leg bones, the femurs and tibias, then you need to double that amount which is basically equivalent to a 4 year tuition from an ivy league university which is crazy to think about. Not to mention, you have to consider the fact that although there are some medical loan agencies, which you usually have to have perfect credit to get, there aren’t currently any financial installment plans that the limb lengthening surgeons offer. So this can be a big barrier but where this is a will there is a way.

Social

A major reason people seek to get leg lengthening surgery done is to get taller for the impact it’ll have on their social life. A lot of you guys out there want to gain height to attract the ladies which, let’s be honest, can help. I personally know that after I gained my height I got more attention from girls which made my dating life easier and I am barely average height(although I think they still prefer guys who have a good personality and treat them well). Another reason people do it is to feel more confident in public settings and not get overlooked and feel like they have more opportunities due to being taller. A question I get asked is do people notice? Well, they’re not going to blatantly come out and say “oh my gosh, something is different with you…I know…You got taller!” Nah, not how it works. What usually happens is you’ll notice they just treat you differently. Less jokes, more respect as a peer vs a child and much more. But yeah it’s usually more indirect vs an outright statement. 

Risk

I also made a video on the potential complications you can get from limb lengthening surgery such as loss of ROM, mobility, non-union, premature consolidation, embolisms, permanent scarring although rather, faint and faded, and more. Although the procedure has been improved and made safer there’s always a risk when it comes to any surgery especially limb lengthening so that’s another factor that needs to be considered.

Happiness

Although the social aspect is one of the major reasons why people do LL, the main reason they should do it is to increase their own personal happiness. In fact, not to come off all mindset-coach-like but that’s the reason you should do anything in life…for your happiness. If you don’t do that you’re gonna find just how empty you feel afterwards and will keep looking for things to fill that gap. Can leg lengthening improve your happiness? Absolutely. For me, I had a height imbalance and my focus was to fix that difference to get rid of the physical pain of my scoliosis, painful joints, etc but I also got a bit taller which was just also another goal of mine. But yes, if you’re doing LL for the right reasons, you can gain more self-confidence, boost your self-esteem, feel better about public settings and so much more. 

So to summarize, is it worth it? In my opinion, if you can come up with ways to overcome the financial obstacle, have the patience to withstand the sabbatical downtime, not let other people’s thoughts of you guide your actions, understand the potential complications, and focus on how much happier you can become, then YES leg lengthening surgery to get taller is definitely worth it.