Male breasts. Sounds funny and absurd but men do really develop breasts. In fact, more than half of men around the world is affected with male breasts. Most of the time, male breasts start to show during puberty and disappears with time. However, more than half of these cases, male breasts do not disappear. For most men, this experience is embarrassing and uncomfortable so they start looking for remedies to get rid of those boobs before anybody else notices and teases them about it.
This condition of developing an abnormally large breasts in men is known medically as gynecomastia. Many things can cause the development of male breasts and they include steroids and any medications that contain the female estrogen hormone, abuse of alcohol, liver impairment, and sudden and significant weight gain. Male breasts treatment is one of the most popular cosmetic plastic surgeries done on men.
Even if this condition is common among male adults, most men try to hide it with thick shirts and undergarments, avoid activities that require them to bare their chest, and withdraw from public exposure. Few have the courage to discuss the issue with a doctor and seek treatment for it. It is because most men think that there is not much they can do with male breasts. Though most cases of gynecomastia do not result from a specific or identifiable cause, it is not a wise idea to dismiss it entirely because gynecomastia may result from a more serious hormonal dysfunction.
Male Breasts Reduction Surgery
There are a couple different methods of male breasts reduction surgery – liposuction or surgical resection. With liposuction, fat-filled tissues are completely removed. This is ideal for people who develop male breasts because of significant weight gain. Surgical resection, on the other hand, involves opening the chest with surgical incision and directly cutting away and removing the glandular tissues. An individual who suffers from true gynecomastia, where the bulging tissues are glandular and cannot be easily removed by liposuction, is advised to choose this type of male breast reduction surgery.
The decision to choose one surgical method over the other is not solely influenced by the patient’s preference; it is also based on the composition of the breast tissue itself.
Male Breasts Reduction Surgery Cost
Despite the fact that men suffering from gynecomastia experience psychological and social trauma, male breasts reduction surgery is not covered by most insurance companies. This is due to the fact that despite the hardships an individual experiences out of it, it is still considered as cosmetic surgery.
A survey conducted by The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery on its member surgeons revealed that the average cost for the surgery is around $3,500. This figure could increase with associated costs of not less than $1,500 depending on several factors such as anesthesia and surgical venue.
The cost of undergoing male breasts reduction surgery may be high, nevertheless, 20,000 men seek out surgery each year. This number is expected to rise sharply as more and more men come to understand that male breasts reduction is possible and that cosmetic surgery is not only for women.