Gynecomastia

What is gynecomastia?

Gynecomastia is also known as man breast, this is nothing but abnormally large breast development in a male, reason is swelling in mammary glands. This is mostly due to a hormonal imbalance. Deficiency of testosterone (Male hormone) leads to allows estrogen (Female hormone) to stimulate breast devlopement.

It is not necessarily that obesity is a major cause of gynecomastia, however obesity lowers testosterone level and fat cells are helpful for growth of estrogen. This combined process leads to breast formation.

Gynecomastia is a serious medical condition as some of the cases require surgical correction, but the major impact of this condition hits the confidence of the sufferer male.
Causes
Breast development usually occurs in males because of excessive female hormone stimulation. It can also occur because of:
· Testosterone deficiency
· Workplace exposure to estrogen
· Goiter (overactive thyroid gland or thyrotoxicosis)
· Chronic kidney failure
· Hemodialysis
· Cirrhosis of the liver
· Hemochromatosis (excess iron)
· Adrenal gland disease
· Body-building through anabolic steroids
· Regular use of alcohol
· Tumors of the brain, lungs, testicles, adrenal glands or breast
· Cancer chemotherapy (estramustine)
· Radiation therapy for cancer of the testicles
Besides the above stated common factors there are numbers of factors which are responsible for gynecomastia.
Symptoms of Gynecomastia
Initial stage of Gynecomastia shows up as a small, soft lump below the nipple, a very small sized. Normally the left breast is affected. Then the areola (colored area around the nipple) swells ( on next stage).
Most boys develop physiologic gynecomastia, when they reach puberty. About 15% of pubescent gynecomastia continuous till adulthood.
Treatment of Gynecomastia
Physiologic gynecomastia normally is not long lasting. It recedes once a boy attain a age of 19-20 yrs. Adults should see an endocrinologist for the advise on treatment process. Generally gynecomastia is treated with a surgery. Plastic surgeons identify the right candidate for surgery on the following criteria:
One should not be overweight
Should not be a smoker
3 Should have proper elastic skin
4 Sould be mentally and emotionally stable.
The surgical procedure involves Liposuction and Breast Reduction. The procedure is performed under general anesthesia under guidance of an expert plastic surgeon. This process is similar to the women breast reduction. An incision is made around the areola, excess glandular tissues are taken out, fatty tissue is removed (either surgically or with Liposuction). If there is only excess fatty tissue in the breast that needs to be removed, the surgeon may just make one or two small incisions, insert a cannula through it, moving it in different directions to break and suction out the fat. The entire procedure may take about 2 hours.

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