Given My Stats and Situation, How Would You Lengthen (5"6' / 169 cm Male)

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Hello all,

Question for you, given the following stats, how much would you lengthen if you were me?

A little additional background. I live in a "tall" area where the average male height is 5'10-5'11 (178-180cm). So I've always been significantly shorter than most men where I live. My close friends are also all 6'-6'4 (183-193cm), which has highlighted this even more for me over time. With this in mind, I am interested in doing LL for myself.

I measured the following myself with a tape measure, so these aren't from x-rays, so they could of course change. But what do you guys think would look the best given the following stats?

Stats:

Height: 66.75 in / 169.5 cm
Sitting Height: 36.5 in / 93 cm
Wingspan: 68 in / 173 cm
Femur: 19.5 in / 49.5 cm
Tibia: 13.75 in /  35 cm
Leg Length: 33 in / 84 cm

Current Ratios:

Sitting Height Ratio: 55%
Tibia/Femur: 71%
Ape index: 1.018

My first thought was to do the 8 cm femur lengthening as that is the most common recommendation. That would get me to ~5"9.5'--Still below average but less noticeably. However, from my measurements here I see my femurs are pretty long already so I'm not sure if that would be a bad thing. But in any case I want more than a 5 cm increase if doing this.

I was also thinking about the 5cm + 5cm strategy or 8cm + 5cm strategy (femur and tibia), as well. But I'm not sure if these would be 'too much' or out of place. Probably definitely could not pull off the 16cm. These would make my ratios a bit better and would of course add height, moving me to average-ish.

What are your thoughts? Of course speaking to a real surgeon about this would be key input, but I wanted to get folks' opinions on here.

Thanks

Edit Post

First , please type your height in cm or feet n inches because only inches for an European member it's hard to understand lol .
You should be around 5'6 / 5'7 if I'm not mistaking so depends if you want 1 or 2 surgeries.
In your case , I would do 6.5 -7 cm MAX femur .
Generally I would say just 6 cm but since your area is taller on avrg I might not want to regret that 0.5 or extra 1 cm after the pain n money .
If you willing to do 2 surgeries I would suggest you 6 cm femur and 4.5/5 cm tibia .
It's not always about 1 cm more or 0.5 more ;if you feel ok during distraction u might get some extra mms and making it like 6.3 femur and 5.2 tibia for example.
It shouldn't always be about half or full cms or nothing .

Edit Post

Quote from: randomperson on February 03, 2022, 09:35:27 PMHello all,

Question for you, given the following stats, how much would you lengthen if you were me?

A little additional background. I live in a "tall" area where the average male height is 5'10-5'11. So I've always been significantly shorter than most men where I live. My close friends are also all 6'-6'4, which has highlighted this even more for me over time. With this in mind, I am interested in doing LL for myself.

I measured the following myself with a tape measure, so these aren't from x-rays, so they could of course change. But what do you guys think would look the best given the following stats?

Stats:

Height: 66.75 in
Sitting Height: 36.5 in
Wingspan: 68 in
Femur: 19.5
Tibia: 13.75
Leg Length: 33

Current Ratios:

Sitting Height Ratio: 55%
Tibia/Femur: 71%
Ape index: +1.25

My first thought was to do the 8 cm femur lengthening as that is the most common recommendation. That would get me to ~5"9.5'--Still below average but less noticeably. However, from my measurements here I see my femurs are pretty long already so I'm not sure if that would be a bad thing. But in any case I want more than a 5 cm increase if doing this.

I was also thinking about the 5cm + 5cm strategy or 8cm + 5cm strategy (femur and tibia), as well. But I'm not sure if these would be 'too much' or out of place. Probably definitely could not pull off the 16cm. These would make my ratios a bit better and would of course add height, moving me to average-ish.

What are your thoughts? Of course speaking to a real surgeon about this would be key input, but I wanted to get folks' opinions on here.

Thanks

Do 15% of your limb lengths—so 2 inches on your tibias and 3 on your femurs.

Edit Post

I would go for tibias less than 3 inches, because

- tibias AND femurs is definitely too much for someone with little wingspan margin
- your wingspan let's you only do +8 cm before you enter short arm teritorry
- tibias are already less than 0.8 of your femur length

If you do that, you still have the option to do another 5 cm on femurs afterwards. This option will not go away.

So in case you end up doing one LL surgery, obviously do the one that is objectively the better choice. The ONLY downside is that you're not satisfied with your final height.

After that first LL surgery you can stand on your toes and decide whether your wingspan would look bad with another surgery or not.

Edit Post

Have a doctor measure your tibia/femur ratio.  Most people get it wrong when they do it themselves.  Most short people have disproportionately short tibias.

Edit Post

Quote from: Medium Drink Of Water on February 03, 2022, 10:35:03 PMHave a doctor measure your tibia/femur ratio.  Most people get it wrong when they do it themselves.  Most short people have disproportionately short tibias.

I heard that that's also bc X-rayed measurements are more accurate than your own measurements?

Edit Post

Quote from: Masteryourlife on February 03, 2022, 09:47:39 PMFirst , please type your height in cm or feet n inches because only inches for an European member it's hard to understand lol .
You should be around 5'6 / 5'7 if I'm not mistaking so depends if you want 1 or 2 surgeries.
In your case , I would do 6.5 -7 cm MAX femur .
Generally I would say just 6 cm but since your area is taller on avrg I might not want to regret that 0.5 or extra 1 cm after the pain n money .
If you willing to do 2 surgeries I would suggest you 6 cm femur and 4.5/5 cm tibia .
It's not always about 1 cm more or 0.5 more ;if you feel ok during distraction u might get some extra mms and making it like 6.3 femur and 5.2 tibia for example.
It shouldn't always be about half or full cms or nothing .

I was thinking it would be good to get cm femur done with 8+ first. I feel like getting 5-6 cm I wouldn't notice as big of a difference from where I am now in my day-to-day life. 177cm vs 175cm seems like a big difference coming from 169.
Quote from: ReadRothbard on February 03, 2022, 09:49:40 PMDo 15% of your limb lengths—so 2 inches on your tibias and 3 on your femurs.

That makes sense. That was one of my first thoughts--5 cm tibia, 8cm femur.

Quote from: LLprime3 on February 03, 2022, 10:19:27 PMI would go for tibias less than 3 inches, because

- tibias AND femurs is definitely too much for someone with little wingspan margin
- your wingspan let's you only do +8 cm before you enter short arm teritorry
- tibias are already less than 0.8 of your femur length

If you do that, you still have the option to do another 5 cm on femurs afterwards. This option will not go away.

So in case you end up doing one LL surgery, obviously do the one that is objectively the better choice. The ONLY downside is that you're not satisfied with your final height.

After that first LL surgery you can stand on your toes and decide whether your wingspan would look bad with another surgery or not.

That makes sense. I feel like, idk, would anyone even care if I had short arms? Maybe. I'm not sure.

Quote from: Medium Drink Of Water on February 03, 2022, 10:35:03 PMHave a doctor measure your tibia/femur ratio.  Most people get it wrong when they do it themselves.  Most short people have disproportionately short tibias.

I definitely plan on doing this. For sure the numbers above are just rough estimates.

Edit Post

I am giving an opinion for the first part. Then you still can decide to do a second limb lengthening or not.
Do tibias first:
5 cm max with nails or
7 cm max with external fixators (be prepared for lots of physiotherapy for Aquilles tendon elongation or otherwise for a further small elongation surgery if you pass 5 cm. (This is the one I would personally choose while putting 5 or 6cm max on femurs in stand-by). More details in my posts and of course all forum.
Choose the top (more experienced and ethical) doctors for each including tendon surgery if needed (the same surgeon generally as for externals elongation).
Don't worry about wingspan before any decision on femurs.
Stay on the safe side, "weight" your psychology and don't take unreasonable risks.