My name's Milo. I'm 21, and I work as a stock trader.
I've been insecure about my height since I was around 15.
It wasn't one moment. Nobody said anything specific to set it off. It just built up slowly over the years, until it became something I think about more than I'd like to.
I want to say this clearly before anything else. There is nothing wrong with being 166cm. Millions of men are that height and are completely fine with it. I'm not writing any of this to convince someone else they should feel insecure too, or that surgery is the right call for them.
This is just about how I feel about my own body.
In the meantime, I've built a life I'm genuinely happy with. I've dated. I've done well for myself financially. I've worked on how I look and how I carry myself. I went to therapy, and it actually helped with a lot of things.
Just not this one.
I tried shoe lifts for a while too. They helped more than I expected, but they started messing with my back, so I stopped wearing them.
If I'm honest, I still feel some shame about all of this, even though I know I probably shouldn't.
Last year I decided to stop just living with it and actually look into fixing it. I spent months reading studies, watching other people's recovery journeys, researching surgeons, and learning about the real risks, the recovery, and the technology behind it.
I looked at what else was out there before landing on surgery. More therapy, which had already helped with a lot but not this. Lifts, which I'd already tried and had to stop. Just waiting to see if the feeling faded on its own, which is what I did for six years before I started this research in the first place.
None of those were actually addressing the thing. Surgery was the only option that did.
I'm still not certain about everything. I don't know exactly how recovery will feel, and I know it varies a lot person to person. If something in my consultations or research changes my read on the risk, I'll say so here, not quietly go ahead anyway.
I'm not doing this because I hate myself. I'm doing it because after six years, I've accepted this isn't going away on its own.
166cm to 174cm. In feet, that's 5'5.5" to 5'9". That's the plan.