Would You Go Under the Knife to Wear Designer Stilettos?

What extremes have you gone to in order to wear a dangerously sexy pair of heels? Well for some women, it’s a life or death situation … for their feet, that is. A growing number of American women are going under the knife to have parts of their feet amputated just so they can fit into the latest Jimmy Choos or Manolo Blahniks.

Some women are undergoing controversial surgical procedures from toe shortening to amputation, all for the sake of being able to wear designer high heels. The procedure works by taking the toe (usually the outside) and cutting the tissue around the toe down to the bone and then removing the toe. After the toe is removed, patients have a narrower forefoot and are able to wear the shoes they desire.

What are the risks of this procedure? Other than the obvious risk of infection, you can also suffer from phantom limb syndrome. This is “the perception of of sensations, usually including pain, in a limb that has been amputated. Patients with this condition experience the limb as if it were still attached to their body as the brain continues to receive messages from nerves that originally carried impulses from the missing limb,” according to NYU Langone Medical Center.

“I think it’s reprehensible for a physician to correct someone’s feet so they can get into Jimmy Choo shoes,” said Dr. Sharon Dreeben, an orthopedic surgeon in La Jolla, Calif.

But advocates for the procedures argue that critics simply do not understand the importance of high heels. “Some of these women invest more in their shoes than they do in the stock market,” said Dr. Suzanne M. Levine, a New York podiatrist.

“Take your average woman and give her heels instead of flats, and she’ll suddenly get whistles on the street,” Dr. Levine said. “I do everything I can to get them back into their shoes.”

What do you think about this procedure? Would you risk a toe just so the “*ones beneath you can recognize the red bottoms you wear?” –mckenzie harris