Innovation

Dynzell Sigers was sick of being small. At 27-years-old and just 5' 5" tall, he decided to undergo an excruciating — and incredibly expensive — limb-lengthening surgery to become, as Skee Lo would say, a little bit taller. In December of 2022, Sigers underwent the first of what would be many surgeries.

Limb-lengthening is not for the squeamish. First, surgeons will cut one of your major leg bones (the femur or tibia) clean in two. Next, a metal rod will be inserted deep into the two sections of bone, connecting them again. Once you've healed from the surgery, you'll extend the rod very slightly with a rotator every couple of months. This slowly forces the body to stretch and grow the leg gradually. As you can imagine, it's a grueling process that involves a lot of physical therapy and dedication, and finally, another surgery to remove the device once the desired growth is achieved.

Most people are able to add about 2-3 inches to each limb lengthened (it can be done on your arms, too!), but Sigers decided to go back and have the procedure done all over again and was able to grow a whopping 7 inches taller. In the end, the surgeries and recovery cost him over $80,000.

Dynzell documented the entire journey on his social media, and just recently, had the lengthening device removed completely — almost two years after his first surgery.

After years of watching him work in the gym, attend rigorous physical therapy sessions, and struggle to regain range of motion, strength, and athleticism, we're all wondering the same thing:

Was it worth it?

Sigers says people he meets notice a difference in him right away, and the transformation has felt amazing.

"You just ooze confidence," he says a woman stopped to tell him one day. "Your smile and you just like, radiate confidence."

"That's the first time I've ever heard that in my life, and I've always considered myself a confident guy, like always," he told LADBible.

Some commenters accuse Sigers of being insecure or even vain. But they vastly underestimate the importance society places on men's height.

The numbers are in, and they are not kind for our short kings. Taller men have been shown to make more money (and so have tall women, actually), get more dates, are perceived as more confident and masculine, and can even be flat-out happier overall!

Being short can also make you be viewed as less successful and attractive, even when by most other objective measures, you're not. Brutal!

Studies have also shown an intense link between height and masculinity. Shorter men who 'believe' in masculine norms are more likely to be dissatisfied with their height than those who don't. In other words, being short can make you feel like less of a man, likely due to all the societal stigmas attached to height.

ntkdagreatest/TikTok

Sigers admits in an interview with NeedToKnow that dating was one of the big motivators behind his willingness to try limb-lengthening, but that the self-confidence goes way beyond scoring dates.

"In my teens, I was once rejected by a girl I had a huge crush on and although she found me attractive, her reasoning was that I was too short and too young for her.”

He tried wearing tall shoes, daily stretching, and other techniques for growing or appearing taller. Nothing was enough to move the needle. Since the surgeries, he's noticed an increase in the interest he gets from women — but it could just as well be from his dramatic boost in confidence, self-esteem, and outlook on life.

"All my life I struggled with viewing myself as a small person and no matter what I did to change it I always felt the same,” he told The New York Post. “Limb lengthening gave me the opportunity to change my life and the way I perceive life as a whole. I have no regrets and decided to share my journey with the world to let other men who feel the same know that there is another option for them.”

Limb-lengthening won't be an option for most people who are unhappy with their stature. It's controversial in some medical communities as it's extremely invasive and, technically, unnecessary in many cases. Outside of that, the process is unimaginably expensive and requires 1-2 years of dedicated physical recovery.

But its rising popularity should give us a lot of pause about how society values, or overvalues, height; especially in men.

In the meantime, Sigers says the $80,000 was money well spent.

“I feel like a new man and as though I was able to get a second chance at life.”