Hello! I am new here and I am interested in a limb lengthening. I am starting to get more informations about it and one of my most important questions is whats about the proportion between arm and leg length after a lengthening surgery? I am 172cm and my arm span is 170 cm. I want to increase my height to ca. 10 cm. I asked a doctor who does lengthening surgeries whether it could appear a problem with wrong arm/leg proportions after a leg lengthening but he said that does not attract attention. He said seemingly shorter arms after a leg lengthening have never been an aesthetic problem in his cases. The only proportion problem arises beetween upper leg and lower leg if you lengthen very much but this also does not attract attention as long as you are not nked or wear a string thong ;-) I want no bad proportions and thats why I think about lengthening both, upper and lower legs, although I know its much more effort and costs sadly more money.
What to you think about it? Sorry my English is not perfect but I try my best ;-) Thank you for replies!
First I want to point out that I have NOT yet decided anything but I am only interested in the topic. So please relax and believe me that I am not one of these guys with hasty reactions who act without thinking and are willing to take too many risks. I want to read everything what could be important for me and I am glad that a forum like this exists.
What both of you say corresponds with my thoughts and concerns. I visited a doctor in Germany and talked with him about limb lengthening and asked him also about the arm span and he said it would be no problem but to be honest I am sceptical. Photos of me were taken to simulate my new height on computer but I had to cross my arms first and that seemed a little bit odd to me. I suspect that had to do with arm span proportion. I read now that arm span and total height of most people is nearly the same. And if I increase height about 10/12cm this could lead to an ulgy T-rex-effect. This makes the situation more complicated. So I have to think and inform myself about arm lengthening, too or accept a lower/smaller height than my desired height. I think 5-7 or maybe 6-8 cm could work because when I wear lift shoes and stand in front of a mirror it does not look bad or unnatural. But of course, I hoped for a litte bit more.
Thanks for your hint with the Ape Index. So in my case (height 172cm, arm span 170) 8 cm are the max, right? More would look like unnatural? The doctor I visited offered me to lengthen only my femur 8 cm, so I dont need a second tibia surgery. But I think that would look like if the femur is 8 cm longer than the tibia, dont you think so? I also asked him then whats about 4-5 cm and he said I should not make such an effort and spend much money only because of 4 or 5 cm. But I dont want to look like a Trex, so I suppose 4/4 or 5/3 could be a good choice.
If I wanted an increase of 10/12 cm I would have to make a arm lengthening, too but how much theoretically the arms should be lenghten? Do I need an upper arm and an underarm surgery then? Is it possible to combinate that with a leg surgery? Could it fit/match better, longer legs and longer arms with a shorter torso or is that very noticeable, too? 
I am just asking, not decided anything yet.
@peaceout - do you mean 5 cm only femur or in total?
@ ouroboros - yes I agree and it left me deeply wondering. He was very nice and explained everything very detailedly and coherently. I did not have the feeling that he wanted to persuade me or urge me to anything but I can't believe that he has never had any problems with disproportions in cases of large lengthening distances. For me it makes no sense because surgery costs are the same no matter whether you lenghten 4 or 8 cm and I don't think he speculates on more complications which would result in making more money because honestly no doctor could have a genuine interest in a higher complication rate which leads to more dissatisfied patients and a bad reputation. I guess that maybe he assumes that somebody decides against limb lengthening when he can not have his desired height or would have to accept more surgeries because of proportions. Betz is still an option for me but now I look for other doctors, too.
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