Gynaecomastia is an incredibly common condition that affects thousands of boys and men around the world. Commonly known to the general public as having “man boobs”, it’s most simply explained as an increased amount of breast gland tissue that can affect one or both breasts and varies from a small amount of extra tissue through to a prominent breast area.
It can be caused by a number of different things including hormonal imbalances between the amount of oestrogen and testosterone that the body is producing, obesity (although this can also be linked to the production of oestrogen) and hormonal changes in the body during periods such as birth, puberty and older age. There are also some potential causes that are more rare such as medicinal side effects, drug or alcohol misuse or pre-existing health conditions such as kidney or liver problems.
While all men produce at least a small amount of oestrogen, the main issue with gynaecomastia is that the production of oestrogen is higher than the production of testosterone. Generally, the levels of testosterone are much higher and this prevents the oestrogen from causing the additional breast tissue to grow, but when the levels are lower, the oestrogen can overpower the testosterone.
Gynaecomastia itself isn’t considered to be an incredibly serious problem, but it is a condition that a number of men find tough to cope with as they can be embarrassed about the excess breast tissue and can experience pain.
How is gynaecomastia determined?
Well, the first step to determine if the problem is gynaecomastia or not is to ask the first question, is it really an enlargement of the breast tissue? While it would be one of the more obvious sounding questions, enlarged breasts in men can actually be caused by other reasons such as weight gain. In this case, the enlarged tissue will actually be adipose tissue beneath the skin (which can be called pseudogynaecomastia) but it’s easily examined as it feels very different to breast tissue. If there is any doubt then utilising ultrasound can often fully determine this.
Other things that would be used in the examination and determination of gynaecomastia would be to take a look at the size and symmetry of the swollen breast tissue (as in true gynaecomastia this tends to be asymmetrical), checks into history or evidence of liver or kidney impairments, any evidence to suggest a lack of testosterone in the patient and if there are any signs of medical issues such as hyperthyroidism.
Once the cause of the gynaecomastia has been discovered, then it’s time to start looking into possible solutions.
Can gynaecomastia go away naturally?
The simple answer on this is, it depends on the individual and the extent of their gynaecomastia. If the issue is present in a newborn, this is down to the oestrogen of the mother still being present in their body and should fade over time as the child grows. Moving forwards to boys who are starting to go through/are going through puberty, again this is something that should fade away as their hormones start to even out as they pass through the puberty stage. If the issue is still present after this point, then while there is still a possibility that gynaecomastia can go away naturally, it’s much more likely that its appearance is permanent and that it’s here to stay. At this point, the best and only proven solution is to undergo a chest reduction surgery.
How do I get rid of it?
Gynaecomastia can be effectively treated with chest reduction surgery which, as it says on the tin, is a surgical procedure to reduce the size of the chest. Surgery for gynaecomastia is purposely designed to remove the excess fat, skin and breast tissue from beneath the skin to aid in achieving a more natural looking proportion to our chest. Depending on the extent of surgery required, it may also be necessary that the nipple and areola could need to be repositioned to make sure that the chest still maintains a natural appearance.
What happens after the surgery?
After undergoing chest reduction surgery to mitigate the appearance of gynaecomastia, it’s heavily advised to take at least a week off work to recover. While this does all come down to the industry that you work in, for example an office job behind a desk is much less labour intensive than working in a factory doing heavy lifting, making sure you take the time to recover properly can play a huge part in how the final surgical results turn out.
The surgical team will brief you on how to manage any pain and discomfort that you may feel once you have left the surgery and returned home, it’s completely normal to experience this and the team you deal with will be able to assist you with and concerns or queries you may have.
Once you’ve recovered, you’ll be able to notice a visible improvement almost immediately after the surgery (although the area may be a little tender, swollen and sore for a little while). Over the next weeks and months, you’ll continue to see the results improve until your final results are showing.
How much does gynaecomastia reduction surgery cost?
The price for chest reduction surgery to help reduce the visible signs of gynaecomastia depends on the individual needs of the patient, but at Better Body Surgery our prices start at £2995. To find out more about how you can book a completely free, no-obligation consultation to fight the visible signs of gynaecomastia, contact our team today on 0800 772 0039 or by using our contact form.