Psychology of Gynecomastia
All About Gynecomastia:
Like starting to shave, the lowering of one’s voice, or developing an Adam’s Apple, a flat and strong looking chest is seen as a sign of masculinity. It is humiliating to have a chest that looks even the slightest bit feminine. Many women seek breast augmentation because they say, “I look like a boy and just want to feel feminine.” And though men never make the opposite statement – probably because the words are too hard to say – it is probably in the back of their minds. As shy as some flat-chested women are about men seeing their chest naked, they tend not to have the same level of shame or humiliation as do men with gynecomastia. It is very common that even men with the mildest forms of male chest enlargement never want to take their shirt off, wear loose clothes over a tight undershirt, and spend time in front of a mirror pushing their chest back to make it look flatter.
Men are also much more hesitant than women to undergo plastic surgery in general, and male breast reduction surgery in particular. Perhaps they still believe in stereotypes that have long since been abandoned about plastic surgery not really being for men. Or they remain in some degree of denial about their gynecomastia, privately hiding their embarrassment, but not wanting to look the problem squarely in the eye.
