The Men Breaking Their Bones to Get Taller

The Trend: Limb lengthening surgery, once reserved for medical conditions, is now gaining popularity as a cosmetic procedure for men who want to be taller. The surgery involves breaking the leg bones and slowly separating them using internal rods, allowing new bone to fill the gap at roughly a millimeter per day. It can add up to three inches and costs $70,000 to $150,000 out of pocket.

What People Are Saying: The recovery is long and grueling, as patients describe weeks or months on crutches peppered with disrupted sleep and burning nerve pain. Still, some patients maintain that the results are worth it. The procedure even made a cameo in the recent film Materialists as a symbol of modern appearance anxiety.

What to Know: Experts strongly advise psychological evaluation before pursuing surgery. Height anxiety is part of a larger pattern of appearance pressure on men — the same cultural force driving so-called looksmaxxing communities online, where young men rate each other’s looks and recommend increasingly extreme interventions. Limb lengthening surgery might be the most dramatic expression of this internet-fueled appearance obsession that many people — particularly young men — are feeling right now.