Breast Reduction Surgery A Growing Trend For Boys
Nearly 14,000 Males Had Breast Reductions In 2006
Dr. Holly Phillips
Breast reductions and boys don't quite seem to go together, but thousands of teenage boys are going under the knife to treat an embarrassing condition. While the condition itself isn't new, recently there has been an explosion of boys turning to the operating table for breast reduction surgery.
At 22-years-old, Alex Rees still feels the pain of an isolating adolescence, when he shied away from friends because he had enlarged breasts.
"Changing in the locker room, I'd always be trying to hide in the corner. I wouldn't feel comfortable maybe going swimming or just really taking shirts off," Rees says of his condition.
That's because he suffered from gynecomastia, a medical condition that causes excess breast tissue in males. And Rees was far from alone with his condition.
Believe it or not, gynecomastia actually affects 40 to 60 percent of men at some point in their lifetime.
"It can start when you're in puberty and sometimes it will regress, but very often it persists through adulthood," says plastic surgeon Dr. Michelle Copeland.
Compression garments can be worn to flatten out the breasts, but many young men, like Rees, are opting to eliminate the problem with surgery.
Last year alone, nearly 14,000 teenage boys had breast reductions, a 21 percent increase from 2005.
Boys now know a little bit more about plastic surgery. I think that it's a little bit more accepted," says Dr. Roxanne Guy of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
"A lot of people hear about breast reductions and I think they think of it as something you do when you're vain," says Dr. Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist.
Though the surgery is technically cosmetic, gynecomastia can leave emotional scars.
"If you're really getting harassed, if your self image is in trouble because you think, 'Gosh I'm a freak,' that's a perfectly good reason to do some cosmetic surgery," says Caplan.
Rees has no second thoughts about his choice.
"I'm going to be able really to put myself out there and feel like there's nothing holding me back," he says.
While there's often no clear cause for gynecomastia, it can be triggered by medical conditions like liver or kidney disease. The rise in obesity is also cited, as are certain medications, like steroids.
If you have concerns about gynecomastia, the first step is to contact a doctor.