Leg-lengthening surgery from Materialists is real heres why patients drop thousands on the Frankenstein procedure

The lovelorn sure will go to great lengths for a date.In the new romantic drama “Materialists” starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans, there’s conversation around what constitutes a so-called perfect man to date.Johnson’s matchmaker character, Lucy, describes Pascal’s statuesque character, Harry, as a “unicorn” — good-looking, rich and 6 feet tall.At least, now he is.Later on in the movie — small spoiler alert) — Lucy discovers Harry was 5-foot-6 before he underwent leg-lengthening surgery, leaving his legs full of scars.Limb-lengthening is a procedure that gradually lengthens the bones in the arms or legs over the course of several months.“What’s a couple inches?” Lucy says to a client, shining a light on the superficial aspect of judging a person by their height.The surgery involves breaking the femur and/or tibia, inserting rods, and turning the rods by up to 1 millimeter per day as new bone fills in the gap, according to the International Center for Limb Lengthening.The surgery can add up to six inches in height, though most patients gain two to three inches, which is the recommended lengthening.Because it’s considered cosmetic surgery, it’s not typically covered by health insurance, other than in rare circumstances — and it’ll cost a pretty penny.In the U.S., bilateral femoral lengthening can sometimes cost more than $120,000, while tibia and femoral lengthening combined can cost in excess of $250,000 with some providers, according to Dr.

Shahab Mahboubian, D.O., MPH.Of course, it’s cheaper abroad, so some American men might travel abroad to places like Turkey to get the procedure — similar to the trend of traveling for hair transplants.But is this seemingly bizarre surgery really a thing that people desire to do — and why?In 2019, just a few hundred limb-lengthening surgeries were conducted, according to the BBC — but the painful process is gaining popularity, and so is online talk about it, mostly out ...