Gynecomastia Causes And Surgery
The meaning of the word Gynecomastia is another way of saying ‘male breast enlargement’ and is a Latin term often used by healthcare professionals. It’s a very common condition which affects one in three adult males but is not often openly discussed. What triggers the condition is unknown in most cases although there are a few known identifiable causes.
Most men with this embarrassing problem would want their enlarged breasts removed and there are two types of remedies available, either medical or surgical. Basically the outcome is the same, in other words to get rid of the excess breast tissue and sometimes also the excess skin if they are quite large. Here we will discuss what choices are available to you if you choose to go the surgical route to have your gynecomastia fixed.
It’s common for teenage boys to have a slight or moderate enlargement in one or both breasts due to hormonal changes, but in 90% of cases this has completely resolved itself by the time they reach adulthood. In older adult males the incidence can be as high as 1 in 3 though. The rarer causes of this medical problem include side effects of prescription drugs (blood pressure, prostate cancer and cardiovascular drugs), recreational drugs such as anabolic steroids or marijuana, breast enlargement due to disease complications (liver failure and various types of cancer) and also some rare inherited conditions that people are born with (also known as congenital diseases).
A responsible doctor would try and eliminate all these possible causes, some of which are reversible without surgery, before recommending surgery as a possible treatment for your gynecomastia. You will also need to give your doctor a good medical history regarding your overall health, any past surgical chest procedures, bleeding tendencies that you might have, and how much, if at all, you use alcohol and cigarettes. It’s also important to look at and measure your breast size in comparison to your overall body size.
The human tissue that is present in the breast of most males is a combination of glandular tissue, which is quite firm, and fatty tissue, which is soft and floppy. The ratio of fatty tissue to glandular tissue varies from one person to the next and if a man has gynecomastia (man-boobs) then there could be too much of both present. But the surgical technique used can differ depending on the size of the male breasts and the type of tissue that is mainly present.
If there is a lot of fat in the enlarged male breasts then the best surgical procedure is liposuction, which is a simple surgical operation. A small incision of 3 to 4 mm is made through which a thin suction pipe is inserted and the excess fat cells are then simply sucked out of the enlarged breasts. If however, the main cause of breast enlargement is glandular tissue then a proper surgical operation to excise the tissue is required (this involves cutting it out with a scalpel). This type of procedure usually leaves minor scarring around the nipple area, and sometimes both liposuction and proper surgery are performed together.
Sometimes scars can be a bit larger if some excess flesh also needs to be removed, followed by some reconstructive surgery. On average you are looking at surgery lasting about 90 minutes and it is always done under general anesthesia. Sometimes though it is possible to do it under local anesthesia with the use of some sedation.
Some post-operative bruising and swelling can of course be expected but this can be minimized by applying tight bandages to the wounds for at least a week to 10 days. This prevents you from seeing the full benefits of the surgery for 2-4 weeks after the operation. But healing can be speeded up by using an elastic garment which applies some pressure to the are a for 1-2 weeks as well.
Exercise should also be avoided for the first month and you should be able to go back to normal physical activity after 6-8weeks. Complications are not very common and are mainly related to problems of how well the surgical procedure was performed. Problems after surgery could include an uneven shape due to inadequate amounts of tissue having been removed, ugly scarring or decreased feeling (sensation) in the nipples. Blood clots can also sometimes form, known as a haematoma, and will then have to be drained at a later stage.
From the above article it can be seen that surgery is a viable treatment option for gynecomastia (man-boobs) but that it will be very expensive and does have certain risks attached to it. In addition you will have to keep the pain and discomfort in mind and the time lost after surgery for recovery and convalescence. There is however a medical option available as well to treat gynecomastia and it’s a product (capsule) called Gynexin, which you can read about in other articles on this website.
