Inside The World of Leg Lengthening

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is from, of all places, G Q. One of
our alert listeners sent this in. I should give credit,
but I'm sorry I lost the email Um. The title
is inside the world of leg lengthening and it starts
with a conversation a profile of John, who's in his
mid forties stands five eleven and a half, which is notable,
because what wasn't like a year ago? He is five

(00:22):
eight and a half and they describe him walking through
a hallway. I was going to assume that people are
like getting an extra half inch or something, not Oh,
three inches. Ah, he's walking through the Aria Resort and
Casino in Las Vegas, wincing as he throws his hips

(00:43):
and wide semicircles and dragging his feet exactly where they
need to be. He's been shot. That's much better than
being an embarrassing five eight and a half. Who could
live like that? Well, it's this temporary. That he's on
his feet at all is impressive and probably foolish, considering
that only eight months priories five and a half. But
back in September he paid seventy five thousand dollars for

(01:04):
the agonizing privilege of having his legs surgically lengthened. That
ain't far off. That entailed having both of his Femur's
broken and adjustable net metal nails inserted down their centers.
Each nail is made of titanium, which is both flexible
and sturdy, like bone, and about the size of a Piccolo. Delete.

(01:26):
The nails were extended one millimeter every day for about
ninety days, versus via a magnetic remote control. What's the
broken bones? Heel? Tada, a newer, Taller John, and your
life is so much better at five eleven than it
wasn't five eight. Well, you, you, being well above six FT.
You don't get to common on this, not at all.

(01:48):
It's like the beautiful girl saying looks don't matter. How
dare you. But wait, there's more. With the procedure like this,
of course there are some caveats. All of the height
gained obviously comes from your legs. Your proportions can look
a little weird, especially when you're naked. Also, the recovery
can be long and taxing. Here's where the rubber meets

(02:10):
the road, meets the bone. When we met, the bones
and John's legs are not yet fully healed. In a
small section of his right Femur is still a little soft,
like El Dente Spaghetti. The smallest stumble could snap a
bone into Oh my God. And then there's the pain,
which is relentless. Oh Mommy, is a long leg, mcdaddy,

(02:32):
and you know how I got there. Leg lengthening. So people, people,
do people do this? As adults doing this? I remember
hearing a story once about doing it with your kids
who are like really short. Yeah, yeah, developmental issues, that
sort of thing, physical developmental issues. Yeah, so this is
but this is for adults. You pay seventy five dollars
for the privilege of having your femurs broken and these
adjustable nails inserted. Um, then they send an electronic signal

(02:56):
to your remote control legs to stretch by it. Was
it a millimeter a day, which doesn't sound like a lot?
Was it a centimeter? A millimeter? Because once ten times
the size of the other one, one millimeter every day
for about ninety days. There's the pain, which is relentless, ambient.

(03:17):
The extension of the nails in his legs stretch the
nerves and tissue around the bones, especially the thick meaty
muscles like the hamstrings, to an almost excruciating degree. He
couldn't walk for months. They fill you with enough painkillers
that it's bearable, John Explains. But his biggest fear was
becoming addicted to the drugs, so he weaned himself off
the regiment earlier than he should have. Couldn't walk for months. Correct.

(03:40):
Why would someone like John, a handsome, confident, funny father
to three? Wow, he's funny. You got kids and you
can't walk for three months? Why would he sholl out
for a procedure that costs more than a tesla and
results in months of agony for a couple of extra inches?
It's not like he was particularly short. He was just
shy of the average height of an American man, which
is five ft nine. You're just below the average height. Well,

(04:03):
you'd come on five eight and a half to five nine.
I'd call that average height right. Well, and it's what
they mentioned. He's the father of three, not whether he's
still with his wife or whatever, Um, but the opportunity
to be of above average was too good to pass up.
I noticed the taller people just seem to have it easier,
he says, laughing, he shrugs. The world seems to bend
for them. The tall and their power over. I'll be

(04:26):
interested to see, after he's taller, if he feels like
it's still as much about that as he thought. I
don't know. Yeah, there's so many people who make drastic
physical changes thinking that's why I'm unhappy, then figure out
now I'm unhappy because I'm unhappy and then regret terribly
the surgical and hormonal interventions they have used. But Um,

(04:48):
we won't go off on that tangent. Uh So, a
couple of statistics. Blah, blah, blah. Male Height, particularly the
absence of it, is one of the last social stigmas,
as if the new rules of body positivity ailed to
apply vertically. Of course it is a G Q. So
they're just way off the deep end of Dopey, soft headed.
You know body positivity. Wow, short guys aren't so much

(05:12):
discriminated against as they are precruited, precluded from stuff like
dating taller people making basketball team. Obviously, according to a
twenty nine study of Australian men, Short guys make less
money than their taller peers, about five hundred dollars a
year per inch. That's interesting. Five hundred a year per inch.

(05:34):
So if I was I was five eleven for the
longest time now because I'm old and bitter. I'm well,
old probably has more to do it, to do with
it than bitter, but not five ten. Maybe five ten
and a half. But so, if I was sure you
get shorter because of a bad attitude, so I'd have
had to if I was six one. I've made another

(05:54):
thousand dollars a year throughout my life after taxes. Why,
that would be in consequential. I'm shorter too. When I
got measured for my chemotherapy, they did a laser measurement
and I had shrunk like a full half inch. Get
squarshed down over the years. What you get worn down
to enough by life. That's what happens. True enough. Um,

(06:18):
let's see. You're less likely as a shorter guy to
climb the corporate ladder. According to one survey, the average
height of a male fortune CEO six FT. That's interesting.
And every president we've had is is on the taller
end in modern times. Yeah, isn't it like every time?
or every time but one the taller guys, one in
the modern area anyway. Yeah, Um, let's see. So anyway.

(06:42):
I mean we could get more into it, but I'm
fascinating I've always been fascinated by the how much the
personality plays a role in that. I've known short dudes
who who who just had Um, I don't know what
the right word would be. I was gonna say bigger personalities,
but that's not just I think it's confident. I think
it's just a confident personality. They don't come off is

(07:05):
their height and I've known really big guys like you
forget how big they are because they're so kind of
wilting personalities. Yeah, well, that you're getting into some tendencies
that are almost cliches, with the small man's disease, or
each has to try so hard, or the gentle giant,

(07:25):
or what happens? He doesn't want to terrify everybody. I've
never thought that was fair. So if you're confident and
you're short, you get labeled as small man's disease, where
you could have the same level of, you know, aggressiveness
at six foot and they would just call you a
dick or something. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So they mentioned a
couple of things in the context of this procedure, including, uh,

(07:47):
fixing bone deformities and children, which is a great thing,
although it is a painful deal. And you know, I
have to think about hip replacements that it's a very,
very similar procedure. I mean you you saw off the
end to the FEMUR, the ball that goes into the
socket of the HIP joint. You replace it with a
prosthetic and screwed in there and everything or nail it
or however they do it. Um, I should know, Um,

(08:10):
but wow. Okay, but if you would like to get
this done, cost you about grand and they'll do it
for you in Las Vegas. That's a lot of money. So, Um,
I'm thinking if you want to get like six inches taller,
number one, you'd look like a man on stilts and
number two, of the pain would be too much. By
the end of it you would be a hope will

(08:30):
you'd probably be dead from your opioid addiction.