Being 5'9 myself I can tell you that sometimes it happened that I thought about.. what if I was 5'10 !?
I am not 180+ but I am not 175- ; Would I still consider this ?
A friend is 5'10 and he is considered tall by short people/sometimes even avarages ones (due to his proportions too :skinny leg and wide shoulders) .
Never heard about him being considered short but if you see him in pics or crowds he doesen't stand as somehow tall either while a 180/181 cm guy will stand like tall especially if he hasn't flat sole but some sort of new nikes or healed shoes.
I don't know if you can help him right now but he needs to go out there and experience things by himself .
On internet short guys have no life , they are described as ugly,pathetic,anti-social meanwhile out there they are all engaged , happy and satisfied .
Forums and online chats are what ruins this generation !
I came to this forum a year or so after the beginning of my neurosis, not before and got it here like some !
Tell him he is perfectly ok and suggest him to leave the forums and experience the life outside and he will notice that his height is not short .
Wear thick shoes and maybe add a little insole inside and he can stand as a 180 cm guy .
This surgery for me makes no sense from 180+ because if you play with shoes you can have a really good height.
You can stand as a 6ft+ guy without having insoles (thing I really don't reccomend because it's just a reminder of your height + an extreme indicator of insecurity so rather embrace it and make the surgery then torture yourself with those tricks ) .
Under 180 cm I feel that proportion wise 5 '10 is closer to the taller side then shorter so Let him know that he is young ,he might grow 1 or 2 cm more and even if he doesen't he has a nice height .
We don't have to believe that our height is wrong to do this surgery , we have to suffer from it because we feel more then that number as mans/humans ..so tell him the truth and explain him that he is barely a 180cm guy .
Tell him to think carefully and that he is really young and that maybe when he will be 23/25 new techs will be out and he will be more lucky then me and you so take it easy , enjoy your years and if this still bothers you , come back and take this step but he will surely be in a better spot/time for it with probably better/safer nails and pain/medical protocols .
Encourage him to be the best version of himself by then because height will not make him any better with girls if he is not built ,lazy,insecure in general or with 0 criteria in clothing or so on .
Height is the cherry on top it's not what solves everything.
Give him an A plan (accept your already nice height) and a B plan (even if , you re not lost because you will do it in a safer way so don't stress out because there is a light ) .
Don't let him pass trough what we had too.