How Can it be Normal for Men to Develop Breasts?
Many men have gynecomastia --enlarged, female-like breasts--caused by excess glandular tissue or fat(or both).
All About Gynecomastia:
The male chest has muscle, fat, and even little buds of breast tissue. In fact, if one were to squeeze a newborn baby’s nipples –even a boy – a couple of drops of milk can come out due to stimulation of the tissue by his mother’s hormones. Some amount of breast tissue is normally found in all males and females. The difference is that the estrogen surge during female puberty causes it to grow into a full-fledged breast (and when it doesn’t, some women consider having a breast augmentation.)
But even the raging levels of testosterone during puberty are always accompanied by an increase in the level of estrogen in every male. That is because testosterone production is not a perfect process; when the body makes a large amount of testosterone, some estrogen is also made. Likewise, even the most feminine women produces some testosterone. Testosterone is also converted into estrogen by fatty tissues, thereby increasing the growth of the breast buds on top of the additional chest fat seen in overweight young men.
Adolescent boys in particular are embarrassed by it, as they perceive the development of male breasts as some kind of sign that they are somehow “less male.” But the contrary is true! The fact that weightlifters taking testosterone often develop gynecomastia is proof that this related to maleness, not the lack thereof.
It is said that 90% of boys develop some degree of male chest enlargement during puberty. That means that it is actually more normal to get it than not to get it. Usually it subsides as men enter their twenties, but for at least a quarter of them, some degree of breast enlargement persists. It can persist in any man, even the thin, healthy, and fit, but it is more common in boys and men who are or who have been overweight. Anabolic steroid use in weightlifters can also increase gynecomastia, as can heavy marijuana use. There is also a long list of prescription drugs that can cause chest enlargement in males.
That being said, the majority of male chest enlargement patients have no identifiable cause. The bottom line is that it is so common that it is really a variation of normal and should not be considered abnormal. I emphasize this point because gynecomastia patients tend to be very private and embarrassed about their condition; one of my goals, beyond just treating my own gynecomastia patients, is to try to change men’s perception of this condition in general so that we create a climate in which men suffer less embarrassment.
Gynecomastia Surgery - Male Breast Reduction
It is undesirable because it makes men reluctant to take their shirt off. Some wear two shirts everyday just to conceal it. Even thin men who work out regularly at the gym and otherwise have put the effort into developing bodies that would look good in tight shirts and sweaters cannot do so. Gynecomastia can make men who are just a few pounds overweight look much heavier than they really are.
In the past, gynecomastia surgery was mostly done on teenage boys sent to plastic surgeons by their pediatrician. Weightlifters that developed gynecomastia from steroid or supplement use learned about surgical options from reading muscle magazines or from trainers at the gym.
But in the past few years, the treatment of gynecomastia has finally become mainstream. It is not just the weightlifters and teenagers with the really bad cases seeking male chest reduction; it is the men in their 20s and 30s with just enough extra tissue in their chest for them not to look as good as they should.
Unlike women who talk to one another about their breast augmentation or liposuction, men do not talk to one another about gynecomastia. They hide it under their clothes, and so even their best friends are often totally unaware. Once fixed with surgery, they go forward with their lives as if they never had it. But thanks to the Internet, men can now privately research words such as, "gynecomastia," "male breast reduction," "males breasts," "man boobs," "male chest reduction," etc., and learn that there is a very effective solution.
There are two methods for treating male chest enlargement: liposuction and excision. In the pre-liposuction era, the only thing to do was to cut out the tissue ("excision"), usually using a small incision around about half the diameter of the areola. This worked great when there was a small and well-demarcated and circumscribed gynecomastia mass under the areola. But it didn't work well when there was fat spread throughout the chest. Liposuction is ideal for the reduction of fat, because fat is soft and is easily removed through the liposuction instrument (much like a straw.) However, firm and glandular gynecomastia tissue cannot be removed by liposuction; it needs to be excised. If you are interested in seeing what this looks like, refer to the section of the Photo Gallery titled, "What Gynecomastia Looks Like."