Why Some Men Grow Breasts | Newsweek Health | Newsweek.com

Why Some Men Grow Breasts | Newsweek Health | Newsweek.com: "What causes some men to develop breasts, and how it can be treated."

It was constant dread for Merle Yost. He was tortured with bras hung over his locker, the constant assignment to the "skins" team during gym class, and a particularly brutal nickname ("Tits"). "I learned really early to cover up and hide, and I spent the next 20 years wearing big shirts to cover my chest," he recalls.

The condition may be most devastating to teens, but it can strike at any age. In fact, nearly 50 percent of all men will experience gynecomastia at some point in their lives, according to Glenn Braunstein, the chairman of medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and the author of a recent New England Journal of Medicine article on the condition. Many sufferers don't know that gynecomastia is a medical condition caused by hormone fluctuations and weight gain. Nor do they know that exercise or weight loss alone may not be effective in getting rid of male breasts once they develop.

Before male readers start to freak, we should point out that gynecomastia is both treatable and benign, generally caused by hormonal ups and downs that can occur naturally during infancy, puberty and middle age.

While nearly 65 percent of boys in puberty will experience it to some degree, in 95 percent of those cases the condition will resolve on its own, says Braunstein. Adult-onset gynecomastia can sometimes be hereditary but is more commonly spurred by conditions like obesity, chronic kidney disease or an overactive thyroid, as well as by certain medications like steroids that cause hormone levels to shift.

Braunstein, a hormone expert, explains that when men gain weight, they're not just getting bigger; the extra weight is actually changing their hormone production—and not in a way that most men would like. By nature, fat tissue manufactures the female hormone estrogen, which in turn stimulates breast tissue—meaning that significant weight gain will always be associated with some sort of breast growth, even in men, according to experts. A person who's overweight will be fatter all around, and maybe even develop the excessive breast fat that doctors call pseudogynecomastia—the appearance of male breasts caused by fat alone. But Dr. Elliot Jacobs, a New York plastic surgeon who specializes in gynecomastia treatment (and who suffers from the condition himself), says that most really overweight men are developing actual breast tissue, not just some extra padding. Doctors say that virtually all obese men (those who have a body mass index of 30 or greater, experience some degree of breast growth

Plastic surgeons say the procedure today is easier, safer and more effective than it's ever been. The surgery ranges in price from about $4,000 to $10,000 and can take as little as an hour, depending on the size and makeup of the breast, which can range from puffed up nipples to more fully formed breasts. In some cases surgeons use liposuction to remove fatty deposits and glandular tissue, all through a "tiny nick in the skin"—about an eighth of an inch, says Jacobs, who has performed the surgery on more than 1,400 men. In more severe cases a surgeon may need to open up the breast to remove tissue and excess skin, and occasionally even reposition the nipple.

Braunstein says he encourages teens to wait until they've passed puberty before they seek surgery, but that it can be a "very good option" for those who are cosmetically concerned.
Many pediatricians worry that if surgery is done too early, the hormones that caused the breast enlargement could cause them to regrow