Featured Image Credit: Instagram/theresiafischer
Topics: Health, Mental Health
Dominic Smithers
A model who forked out £130,000 to get her legs lengthened says she now deeply regrets it.
Theresia Fischer, from Germany, underwent the pretty extreme operation several years ago, adding an incredible 5.5ins onto her 5ft 6ins frame.
For those of you who don't know, though you've probably seen a lot of these stories before, the procedure involved metal rods being inserted into a person's shins to give them added height.
Describing it to Bild, Fischer said: "The shin bone is broken cleanly, the calf muscles are split and a telescopic rod is used in each case.
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"You stretch your lower legs independently by holding your knee with one hand and screwing your foot inward with the other hand until it clicks.
"Ten clicks a day on each side bring an additional 0.5 millimetres [0.02 inches]".
But while she claimed at the time she was over the moon with the results, the 31-year-old now says she wishes she'd never gone through with it.
Speaking to radio station MDR Jump, Fischer claims she only did it to please her then-husband, who begged her to go under the knife.
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Recalling conversations they'd have, she told the channel her ex would tell her: "'Theresia, you know I like big ladies. So I would really like this. You could get up to 14 centimetres more.'
"[He would say] 'You can't do anything without me. You need me.'"
And this badly affected her self-esteem.
She went on: "And if you are told that 20, 30, 60, 70 times - then you believe that you are nothing without him.
"I've never dealt with that before because I've always been happy with my body."
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Looking back, Fischer admitted that it upsets her thinking about it.
"I am ashamed because I consented to an operation that shouldn't have had," she said.
This is a big change in perspective, at least publicly.
Back in 2019, Fischer said she was really pleased with the results and had undergone the surgery to boost her self-confidence after being bullied in her teens.
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She added that it had actually had a big impact on her sex life.
She said: "My sex is better now! I have become very flexible with my legs and have more room to manoeuvre in bed."
Though she admitted then that she received a lot of hate online about having had the procedure.
"I now feel happy and satisfied with my legs, but I'm hit by a wave of hate on the Internet," the TV personality said.
"It hurts me a lot. With the leg-lengthening procedure, I found myself and finally overcame my old trauma from being bullied."