‘It’s brutal. You can’t think of the pain, you need to think six foot.’

This was how Hugo Ramirez made it through height surgery, which took him from 5’9 to 6’0.

But the three inches the Miami attorney gained isn’t enough, because he’s planning to go back for a second surgery to reach the lofty height of 6’3.

While many men desire to be taller in the belief it’ll give them better dating prospects, for Hugo, being 5’9 (average UK height) meant he felt he’d had to work harder to be noticed in the workplace, compared to taller men.

‘I’ve been married for 13 years and my wife didn’t want me to do this, but at work, people that are 5’9 have to compete,’ he tells Metro’s Just Between Us podcast.

‘You see a guy walk in at 6’1 and it’s tough. We have to [try harder to] stand out, whether it’s in court or a business meeting because when a six
foot person walks in that door, that’s who everybody looks at.

‘There’s a lot of out there that got really good positions because of their height.’

He also admits his motivation was ‘vanity’ because he doesn’t want to be seen as average.

Hugo had the surgery in Vegas at Limbplastx, after making a pact with a colleague to get it done – although that work friend backed out at the last minute due to concerns about being able to take care of his children.

But, since he’d already paid £62,851 for the surgery, Hugo thought ‘I’m going to do it anyway’.

He explains the process involves being put to sleep and having the surgeons use a hammer and chisel to break your leg bones sideways.

‘It’s almost like a laser cut. It’s very, very thin. It’s not like they shatter it,’ he says. ‘When they break it they put a rod from your hip inside your femur, all the way down.’

This rod, known as an intramedullary nail is magnetically controlled, and whenever the body generates new bone to heal, the magnet separates to force your body to grow yet more bone, which in turn makes you taller.

As a result the limb can be extended by one millimetre per day or one inch per month – and the whole process takes about three months.

‘You’re left with a tiny little scar,’ Hugo adds. He had the operation on his femur, although they can operate on both the tibia and femur at the same time.

The Miami local explains he opted to do his tibia separately because he’d only gain five inches in total if he did them both at the same time.

‘Your tendons, ligaments and skin can only stretch so much at a time,’ Hugo explains. ‘Five inches didn’t sound good to me, so I’d rather just deal with the pain and do it the right way.

‘Everybody’s tall these days, they’re 6’3 or 6’4 – I want to be 6’3, that’s the perfect height.’

When it comes to recovery, which he says that re-learning how to walk with his new legs was the ‘hardest part’.

‘Imagine you’re getting your legs stretched and you have no more muscle,’ he describes. ‘I’m really big on top so I was wobbly because my body was heavier on top than on the bottom. Leaning how to walk all over again was a nightmare.’

His wife had to help him to the bathroom and to shower, even just to get out of bed.

‘You cannot do this by yourself,’ he adds. ‘You definitely need a partner or at least a housemate or nurse to take care of you through the whole process, because there are going to be times you’re going to say “man, why did I do this”.’

He stayed at the ARIA Resort & Casino where he had someone transport him to and from physical therapy. Apart from that, he was bed bound because he wasn’t supposed to put weight on his legs.

‘You’re supposed to not do much of anything for those three months,’ he explains. ‘You’re supposed to be good boy and stay at home.’

By the third month, he was so bored that he went against medical advice, risking injury by getting on a yacht.

For six months he walked with a limp, but after the muscles in his legs got stronger, he felt himself balancing out.

What is it like to date as a shorter man?

Height is often a source of contention when it comes to men dating, with six foot often being the benchmark for what is considered desirable in society.

This isn’t helped by height filters on apps like Hinge, Bumble and Tinder which allow people to filter out men or women who are too short or tall for their liking.

James Cullen previously shared his experience of dating as a short man with Metro, branding his 5’8 height as a ‘shortcoming’.

‘Growing up, I was always vastly under-average for my age height-wise, so being referred to with some derivation of ‘small’ or ‘little’ was so common it almost didn’t even register,’ he said.

‘Now, all of my romantic mishaps have revolved around the fact I am short. I see the dating game like riding a rollercoaster – everyone under a certain height is banned and it doesn’t matter if you’re just under the cut off or you’re barely on the chart.

‘After three successful dates, one man once told me that our pictures didn’t look good on Instagram because of the height difference – and I never heard from him again.

‘Another had to stand, alone, at the back of a cabaret show while I elbowed my way forward just to see the stage. I returned at the end to find he had already found someone else – someone taller – to speak with while I’d been clapping away at the front.

‘And if I had £1 for every time I’d been ghosted after answering the inevitable “how tall r u” question on dating apps then I’d have enough money for the surgery that lengthens your shins.’

Now he’s fully recovered, Hugo has no regrets and is already happy with his new height.

He reveals on the Just Between Us podcast that a successful judge in Houston had never paid attention to him before, but when he walked into the room at six foot tall, she immediately came and introduced herself.

‘It took me being six foot to realise who I was,’ he adds. There’s also perks when it comes to taking pictures with his wife, too.

‘She’s 5’7 and she wears these six inch heels, so she was always taller than me,’ he says. ‘Now, we’ve switched it and I’m taller than her.

‘In life [it feels like] men always have to be taller than the person he’s dating or married to.’

To catch the whole interview with Hugo and for a hot debate on whether height really matters, listen to the full episode of Just Between Us, wherever you get your podcasts.

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