Male Gynecomastia

Gynecomastia is a medical word with a Greek origin meaning ‘woman like’. It refers to big or enlarged breasts in males. About forty to sixty percent of men in any age group may have large breasts. They may even have a single large one and the second one may be normal. Certain medicines and drugs have been linked with this condition but there may be other causes for men to have abnormally large breasts. They may be physiological or pathological. The breast enlargement is due to glandular breast tissue but in some cases may be due to fat accumulation and in some others it may be due to both.

Men would naturally feel embarrassed and shy away from public gaze if they have to undress while swimming or doing physical exercises. Even wearing tight T-shirts may be embarrassing if they have big breasts, which may cause emotional trauma. The age of the patient, the consistency and grade, the presence of single or both breast developments determines the type of surgery, and the decision whether it is needed in the first place. Adolescent boys may have breast development, which may get reduced once the boys reach full growth. But if the problem continues, the doctor will then give a complete physical test in which the history and underlying cause may be studied. Gynecomastia may occur during times of male hormonal changes, or from increased sensitivity of breast tissue to a normal estrogen level.

A survey has shown that 38 percent of males in the age group of ten to sixteen years have pubertal gynecomastia. This increases to sixty-five percent at the age of fourteen and then drops to fourteen percent after the age of sixteen. During adolescence, the gynecomastia cases are generally bilateral, that is, both breasts are equally affected or affected to different degrees. This gynecomastia regresses spontaneously within six months to two years and doesn’t resurface.
In male adults gynecomastia is associated with increasing age due to testicular hypo function, increasing body fat, and change in the estrogen/androgen ratio.

Androgen deficiency and estrogen increase may cause gynecomastia. This condition may also get aggravated due to medicines, diseases related to endocrinological changes, tumors, heredity, disease and other such causes. However, all types of gynecomastia can be surgically corrected and usually the procedures are successful. Only about 0.2 percent of male patients of gynecomastia may have breast cancer which then has to be treated accordingly.