Featured Image Credit: Chandler Crews
How many times have we swiped our way through a dating app, only to see someone's bio state that they aren't interested in someone under six feet tall? While most people have a preference, it's a sad turn of events when someone is counted out based on their height.
Now, one woman has revealed what life is like after she underwent life-changing surgery, just to grow 13 inches.
Maryland-based Chandler Crews was born with achondroplasia, which is a genetic condition where your bone growth in the cartilage of the growth plate is slowed. This is caused by your fibroblast growth factor receptor protein being affected.
Achondroplasia can be passed from parent to child and is typically caused by a spontaneous mutation in a developing embryo. As part of this, those afflicted tend to only reach an adult height of between 42 and 56 inches.
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According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, other side effects include shortened arms and legs, a larger head size with a prominent forehead and flattened nasal bridge, crowned or misaligned teeth, and delayed developmental milestones, among others.
After undergoing surgery in her teens, the 31-year-old has shown off her results (via the Daily Mail). Only 50,000 are said to suffer from achondroplasia in the USA, with limb lengthening surgery being a controversial idea.
Crews explained how her childhood was tough, with her mother constantly worrying she'd die as a result of achondroplasia potentially causing sudden death syndrome due to brainstem compression, as well as breathing problems like sleep apnea.
She regularly had to go to the hospital, while she recalls feeling like a 'show dog' as people would come and pat her on the head or give her 'fake' compliments.
At the age of 16, she underwent the 'taboo' limb lengthening surgery. The procedure is so controversial because there's a high complication rate, it's painful, and expensive. More than this, some say it implies that dwarfism is something that needs to be 'fixed'.
Still, Crews expands on her story on her website, stating: "I felt like I was never in my own body. I felt like my energy was wasting time in the body it wasn't meant to be in.
'I didn't want to wait for the world to change to fit my needs; I wanted to take charge and change for myself and no one else."
She continued: "I've noticed within the dwarfism community, some may feel that when someone else with dwarfism changes or alters their own body, that it's an insult to everyone with that 'body type.' But it's not.
"Just like everyone else in the world, our bodies are our own, and no one, even if you have the same diagnosis as them, should have any say in what you do or don't do."
Back in 2010, Crews underwent the first of three surgeries where the thigh or shin bone is surgically cut and a device is implanted that slowly pulls the bone apart over weeks or months.
The 'distraction phase' has bones extended by around a millimeter a day, with new bone forming in the gap. When you reach the desired height, the external fixator or internal rod is removed, and the bone eventually fuses back together.
Not just used for those who have achondroplasia, cosmetic height increases are apparently becoming more popular. As for Crews, she estimates that her surgery has cost up to $2 million.
Saying she had to learn to walk again, Crews described the whole ordeal as "months of twists and turns" with a "little blood, sweat, and tears."
