How Can I Reduce The Horizontal Width Of My Hips? (Hip Reduction)

Q: Dr. Eppley, Hello! I am a young  male looking for a way to reduce the horizontal width of my hips in the nearby future. Narrow hips and a wide chest are seen as more masculine, I’m sure you know, but my body currently resembles a slightly more feminine figure (unfortunately). I hope the photos are sufficient for visual aid, but I can always send more; the photo with my phone in the frame is with fully inflated lungs, the other is without. After much time spent photoshopping various pictures to understand what would make my body more masculine, I discovered that widening my rib cage to achieve a masculine “V-taper” results in a unpleasantly wide chest (nor is it possible, as far as I know). Narrowing the hips even slightly, on the other hand, produces a sublime result. I am unsure what the limitations are for such a procedure—or if it is even possible—but I do understand that there are many ligaments and such attached to the hip bones. Is it possible to reduce the hip bones while leaving the muscles be? Or, could the muscles/other attachments be partially reduced to make reduction of the hips possible? If it means anything, I assure you that the loss of some tissue mass in this area is easily a worthwhile sacrifice (perhaps even ideal) if it means the hips can be narrowed.

A: I will assume that when you speak of more narrow hips that you are referring to reduction of the iliac crest, specifically the most lateral craved wing of the iliac crest. While there are important soft tissue attachments to the iliac crest (TFL) it is only the middle third or so of the crest which would be reduced. This still preserves most of its attachments and those released are also sutured back. 

From my perspective the question is not whether it can be done but whether the tradeoffs n doing so are worth it. The obvious one is whether the scar placed over it would be acceptable. But actually the appearance of the scar is not what would concern me, it would be whether it would be a potential source of chronic pain. It most certainly would be in the short term but what happens in the long term is not precisely known since this is a procedure done for aesthetic purposes that has very little actual clinical experience.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana