Male Breast Reduction

Are you concerned about the appearance of your chest? Have you tried working out at the gym or losing weight, but are still uncomfortable about taking your shirt off at the beach? Do you find yourself wearing loose-fitting shirts? You may suffer from gynecomastia, an enlargement of a man’s breasts, usually due to hormone imbalance or hormone therapy.

Excess fibrous and fatty tissue that makes a man look as if he has breasts can be an uncomfortable condition. It often feels as if there are little B-B’s in your chest compared to what the fat in your abdominal area feels like. If you took steroids for a while, either for body-building purposes or to treat a medical condition, that could trigger the growth of breast tissue.

Rarely gynecomastia can be found in teenaged boys who may not produce enough testosterone, which can lead to breast tissue developing. If this happens, there are usually other noticeable symptoms, such as lack of facial or body hair, persistent high voice, and the absence of other signs of adult male maturation.

For most men, however, gynecomastia is the result of normal temporary hormone level fluctuations. This can happen to a newborn boy who just spent 9 months inside his mother’s uterus and then is breastfed or to a teenage boy undergoing puberty. In most cases the excess breast tissue goes away on its own. However, if you have reached the age range 18 to 20 and still have chest puffiness, then usually surgery is the only treatment.

Insurance companies consider this surgery cosmetic and except in rare cases, do not cover any of the cost. We have found that most patients benefit from a combination of cutting out the fibro-fatty tissue and using liposuction to blend the edges of the area of removal. This is usually done through a semicircular cut at the bottom edge of the areola (the pink or tan skin around the nipple) and a second small cut at the side of the chest.

After surgery, a compression vest is worn for 2 weeks followed by an Under Armour®-type compression shirt for another 4 weeks. Men with loose skin may need some degree of skin removal that will leave longer scars. The goal of the surgery is to create as flat a chest as possible with the least amount of visible scarring. Surgery is done as an outpatient under general anesthesia.

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