“I’m making my own height, choosing how tall I want to be.”
Frank, a 38-year-old man from Europe, has undergone an intensive leg-lengthening surgery in Istanbul in pursuit of his dream to stand at “average height.” At 5ft 6in, Frank had long struggled with insecurities over his stature and booked the procedure shortly after his honeymoon.
“I had a lot of second thoughts – at the end of the day, someone’s going to break your legs,” he admitted, speaking from his hotel bed where metal fixators brace his thighs. His wife Emilia has supported his recovery, helping with pain management and mobility during the early weeks.
The surgery involves breaking the femur bones, inserting rods, and manually extending them daily to allow new bone growth. Each key turn lengthens the leg by a millimetre. While doctors advised four turns a day, Frank pushed for five, enduring excruciating nerve pain to gain an extra quarter of a centimetre. “Time to grow!” Emilia jokes as the adjustment alarm sounds.
The risks are severe. Frank developed a pulmonary embolism — a blood clot in the lungs — but survived after urgent hospital treatment. Not all patients have been as fortunate; one Saudi man died of complications last year. “I always tell them, 1cm is not more important than your health,” warned Serkan Aksoy, a physiotherapist at the Wanna Be Taller clinic.
Despite the agony and a $32,000 bill, Frank has grown 7.3cm, just short of his 5ft 9in target. “I’m making my own height, choosing how tall I want to be,” he said. “It’s worth it in the end.”