With a modest height of 1.49m, Ms. H. always wished she could grow a few more centimeters. While surfing Facebook, she accidentally read an advertisement that could help adults grow 4-7cm taller without surgery.

At least 4cm tall?

Right after seeing the advertisement online, she saw this spa texting her asking if she wanted to increase her height. Ms. H. also expressed her desire and this consultant made an appointment for her to come to the spa to consult a doctor.

A few days later, she went to the spa and was consulted by a doctor named Nam. The doctor said that there was the best medicine in Switzerland, a growth hormone injection that would help people her age grow at least 4cm, and at most 7cm.

"This is a modern, exclusive technology transferred from Switzerland for billions of dong and has no age limit," Dr. Nam introduced to her.

To gain trust, the doctor also "boasted" that he had injected this drug into many famous people. He listed a series of singers and models. Hearing that, Ms. H. believed and decided to deposit 2 million VND to increase her height using this method.

After that, she transferred money three times to this spa, depositing and transferring a total of 142 million VND. The spa staff made an appointment for her to come in for an injection of this "best growth hormone from Switzerland". However, when she came for the injection, they covered her with cloth so she did not know if the injection was done or not because she did not feel anything.

The doctor told her that her height would increase after 1-3 months. After a three-month check-up, seeing that her height had not "moved", Ms. H. called the doctor's assistant, but the phone was not working.

She called the spa and the staff there said the doctor was on a business trip and scheduled an appointment for the following week. At the end of the following week, according to the appointment schedule, she went to the spa but the doctor was not there. She asked to see the manager but the staff said the manager had not arrived yet.

The spa staff made three more appointments and the next three times she came, there was no doctor at the spa. The last time she came was on April 16, 2024, the spa was closed. When she contacted the spa staff, they said it was a holiday. After the holiday, she contacted them again and the spa was still closed.

She currently does not know how to get her money back from this spa because she has paid nearly 150 million VND but it did not help her grow taller at all. According to Ms. H., many other customers have also come to the spa to ask for their money back like her.

According to the reporter's investigation, the address where Ms. H. reported going to get injections to increase height has never been licensed by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health. Ms. H. had gone to the reception department of the Department's Inspectorate and was instructed by this place to write a petition to send to the police.

There are also many types of functional foods advertised online that claim to help adults increase their height.

However, these drugs and functional foods only have general labels such as "supporting the rapid and comprehensive development of the musculoskeletal system, helping the body grow taller" but it is not clear how long it will take to grow taller by how many centimeters.

No growth hormone injections for adults

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Quang Nam, head of the Department of Endocrinology at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, said that doctors currently only treat slow growth in children. Children need to be monitored for growth charts, nutritional status, weight, and height. If children do not catch up with the growth chart, they must go to the doctor early to find the cause.

Children do not grow in height according to the growth chart due to many reasons, including lack of growth hormone. Doctors must then find the cause. If it is determined that the child lacks growth hormone, they will supplement it to stimulate bone growth. However, this hormone only works for children who have not yet reached puberty.

When a child has reached puberty, the ends of the bones have closed, so injecting this hormone will have no effect. For those who do not lack growth hormone, injections can also cause harmful effects such as edema, joint pain, musculoskeletal pain, and metabolic disorders...

Doctor Tran Thi Ngoc Anh, Department of Endocrinology, Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital, shared that after puberty, the epiphyseal cartilage plates at the ends of long bones have completely ossified and the height growth process will stop.

Based on this mechanism, growth hormone is used to treat many different growth disorders, including growth retardation due to hormone deficiency. Adults can no longer use growth hormone for the purpose of increasing height.

According to doctors, adults who want to grow taller now have only one method: leg lengthening surgery. Doctor Tran Chi Khoi, lower limb department of the Orthopedic Trauma Hospital, said this is a difficult and time-consuming method. To achieve the desired results, patients must be persistent and take 1-2 years.

Therefore, not everyone who wants to increase height can have it fulfilled and implemented. To lengthen healthy legs, the doctor will break the bone, then place a bone fixation frame and slowly stretch it.

Risks such as pain, Achilles tendon contracture, nail infection, etc. can all occur. This method helps to increase height by 7-10cm. The suitable age is under 40 years old, but the most favorable age is from 25 - 30 years old.

In fact, there are many adults who want to increase their height. However, after hearing doctors talk about the process of increasing height by surgery, the difficulties and risks involved, most of them give up the idea.

Are men increasingly opting for height-increasing surgery?

TTO - Not only women want to have long legs like models, men also suffer from unsatisfactory height and many have chosen medical intervention to appear taller than their natural height.