# How Do I Get Taller?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 12, 2002, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-taller/108694 "2002-05-12T21:59:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-taller/108694/22 "2011-01-14T18:19:35Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > Too bad this thread is a Zombie, (albiet seemingly more active than in it’s original run), as I am just a millitad over 5’8" myself, and would like to know why Xavier need to grow 2" inches taller. [moderating]Well, **Xavier** hasn’t posted here since 2004, so you’re not likely to find out. Since the thread is getting some interesting responses, I’m going to go ahead and leave it open–just remember that the original participants probably won’t be responding. [/moderating] ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-taller/108694/23 "2011-01-14T18:52:06Z")
Nothing worse than pygmy zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-taller/108694/24 "2011-01-14T19:03:45Z")
So, what you guys are saying is, the old hanging from the jungle gym routine doesn’t work? ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-taller/108694/25 "2011-01-14T19:53:59Z")
Funny how the spam in my email inbox never seems to mention height increases, only enlargements. Which don’t apply to women. Discriminatory! :eek: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-taller/108694/26 "2011-01-15T20:27:28Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Well, this is a zombie thread, but still worth mentioning: > > It probably won’t. Once the “growth plates” in the bones have fused (which is a simple way of saying they ossified and turned from cartilage to bone,) no amount of hormones will make them keep growing. True, but when do the growth plates fuse? The OP was almost 20 when he posted, which is possible he hadn’t completely fused then, right? Of course by the time I posted, you are correct, there likely wasn’t much hormones could do. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2011, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-taller/108694/27 "2011-01-16T06:29:55Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Oh; and “attach a metal framework to them” means “bore holes into through your legs into your bones and stick rods through them”. I imagine that “painful” is an understatement. I can vouch for this; I had to be put into a “skeletal stretch” when I broke my leg back in May. It was the most bizarre experience in my life. Essentially, the doctor took a hand-drill (like [this](http://studioefra.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/old-hand-drill-small.jpg). No, seriously.) and drilled straight through my heel with a long-ass bit. When it poked through on the other end, he took a set of bolt cutters and cut off the bit at the base of the drill. Then he took a weight - I think he said it was 4-5 kilos - and attached it to a steel wire, which he looped over both ends of the bit and over a pulley, so the weight hung vertically down. The word “painful” doesn’t even begin to describe it and I was A) on a significant dose of ketorax and b) only had to do it for two days. The though of having to endure that for six months is my personal definition of hell. Geez. ---
**Author:** ![ImNotPaulAvery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@ImNotPaulAvery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ImNotPaulAvery)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-taller/108694/28 "2011-01-17T05:46:43Z")
Whoa!! This thread was started a couple weeks before I graduated high school. I’m about to turn 27 next week. :eek: Makes me feel old and young at the same time. Anyway, I know my younger sister had some hormonal issues that affected her development when she was younger. The doctor gave her some hormone pills but said they wouldn’t affect her growth because the growth plates had already fused (she was a little shorter than average). I think she was 17 at the time. But I’ve personally seen guys/gals tack on a few inches between about 18-20, so I guess the plates fuse sometime in the late teens or very early twenties. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-get-taller/108694.md?page=1)