Overview
Another name for enlarged male breasts is gynecomastia. Ideally, the male breasts are muscular and well defined, which showcases the male’s strength and masculinity. Due to various reasons, the male breast at times can become fatty and begin to sag. Instead of a healthy, masculine look, a male can begin to have an unhealthy, out of shape, feminine look.
There are many reasons behind this problem and they can include hormonal changes, the intake of medications, or genetic predisposition. In fact, it can even occur for healthy teenage boys, usually around 14 years of age, to have this problem for 1 to 2 years. The reason is hormonal and usually goes away after puberty.
Often, the cause of gynecomastia is hard to identify. Certain diseases and medications can cause it and these should be looked into by your family doctor. The medical causes range from a shortage of testosterone to an excess of estrogen. Obesity can cause excessive estrogen, which means that it is highly recommended that you lose weight.
Medications that are known to cause gynecomastia are as follows: estrogens, digitalis, clomiphene, ketoconazole, metrondazole, cisplatin, spironolactone, cimetidine, isoniazid, methyldopa, tricyclic antidepressants, valium, heroin, and marijuana. Liver problems can also be the cause. There are many more possibilities and only a medical evaluation can determine them with any certainty.
The good news is that with modern plastic surgery, gynecomastia can be effectively treated so that you no longer feel embarrassed to take your shirt off. Normally, gynecomastia is treated with liposuction because the majority of the breast tissue is fat. If you are relatively young and have healthy skin, the skin shrinks back after the fat is removed and a good result is achieved.
There are times when the gynecomastia is so bad that liposuction alone cannot eliminate the sagging breasts. In these cases, skin needs to be removed in addition to the fatty tissue in order to obtain the desired results. Another tool the doctor can use to treat gynecomastia is ultrasonic liposuction. This is especially effective when the excess tissue is very hard and fibrous. The ultrasonic liposuction is highly effective in taking out this type of tissue.