'Height surgery' on the rise among American men amid 'looksmaxxing' trend

Cosmetic surgery to increase a person's height is becoming increasingly common, a practice where surgeons fracture one's leg bones and spread them apart, allowing them to grow back with a couple of extra inches or so. The practice has usually been used to correct deformities, but the surgery, known as stature-lengthening, has become more common in recent years. This comes as there has been a trend known as "looksmaxxing" taking place in America among young men. 

Although the surgery has attracted attention in recent years, complications can be detrimental, including weak bone healing, tightened muscles, permanent nerve damage, fat embolism, as well as other complications. One who goes through the surgery also has to keep weight off their legs for several months.

Bones, when broken completely, typically take around 6 to 8 weeks. However, in breaking the bones to gain height, additional space needs to be filled in with bone, meaning that the healing process takes a longer amount of time. Full recovery from the surgery can take half a year or longer.

Four patients who have had the height surgery spoke to the New York Times about their experience, but requested anonymity as they had not told their family, friends or colleagues. The surgery is sought after by men more often than women, sometimes to increase their height for dating as well as other reasons. 

This comes as there has been a controversial boom in what is called "looksmaxxing," or taking extreme measures to increase one's attractiveness. The trend has caught on with younger men in particular, with the movement's top influencer being Clavicular, whose real name is Branden Peters. 

Peters has gone to extreme lengths to enhance his facial features and other parts of his physique, including taking steroids, smashing his bones with a hammer, and performing other extreme actions in the effort to become more attractive. 

Although Peters does not appear to have had the surgery, others in the looksmaxxing trend have discussed the question of whether or not to break their own legs in order to increase their height. 

St. James, 31, had been diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency when he was younger, but his mother decided against growth hormone therapy. St. James, 5-foot-4, worried that he was too short and had dreams of being an actor. “A lot of guys like to say, ‘Well, I’m fine with just the way that I am,’” he said. “Deep down inside, no they’re not.”

Dr. Dror Paley, a surgeon and the founder of the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida, said, “People have been bothered by height for a long time.” He started doing limb-lengthening surgery in the 1980s after the method was invented by a doctor in the former Soviet Union. “This was the beginning of being able to do something about it.”

However, there is still limited data on the effectiveness of the procedure and what long-term consequences exist. 

“This is an elective procedure with potentially lifelong consequences that are not yet fully characterized,” said Michelle Spear, a professor of anatomy at the University of Bristol. “We don’t quite yet know what’s going to happen.”

Four clinics in the US have said they have had an uptick in inquiries over the past decade.