We all know that women possess a unique trait of having the power and ability to feed their offspring by lactation, which is a quality which men can’t possess anyway. However, you may not have been aware of the fact that men can even lactate too as both women and men have mammary glands which is the main organ that produces milk. Though this is rare but it is possible. The mammary glands of men don’t mature to that level whet can induce lactation but if the right hormones are introduced, lactation can become a possibility for men as well.
In case of an imbalance of hormones, there might arise certain issues and gynekomastia is one such example. If you know someone with such a health condition, you’ve clicked on the right article as we’re going to discuss few things on this condition. Read on.
Gynecomastia – What is it?
The enlargement of the breast tissues among men is called Gynecomastia. It seems like a rubbery or a firm mass which is placed right under the nipple and then it gradually spreads all over the area of the breast. One thing to note is that this is not cancerous. The glandular tissue enlarges and not the fat tissue. In few cases, this might happen in one breast but among most men, it happens to both the breasts. During the surgery, the doctors remove the mammary gland tissue which was enlarged. This can be done concurrently or independently with aspiration of fat. They inject general anaesthesia and the surgery will take from 1 to 1 and half hours. You might recover within a week’s time.
How common is this health condition?
Gynecomastia is pretty common among the boys who reach their puberty level and experts suggest that this happens in more than half of the adolescent males and with time it can even go away automatically. Among older men, you may also find such enlargement of breast tissues and it is more common among those men who have fatty tissues surrounding their breasts as well.
Gynecomastia – What are the causes?
Gynecomastia is seen during puberty, infancy and even during old age. Males usually have their own sex hormone testosterone and negligible levels of estrogen as well which is the female hormone. Whenever the ratio between testosterone and estrogen changes, there occurs a sudden growth of breast tissues. It has been found out that men with Gynecomastia have higher than normal levels of estrogen.
When the boy reaches his puberty level, his maturing testis produces more estrogen than testosterone till the time the testes begin to make testosterone till their adult levels. Gynecomastia begins during puberty and it later on goes away but in less than 1 among 20 adolescent boys, this continues till adulthood.
The different types of Gynecomastia
Gynecomastia has two most common kinds which are as follows:
- True Gynecomastia (which is caused by actual enlargement of the gland which lies below the nipple) and
- Pseudo Gynecomastia (due to fat accumulation)
When a man becomes obese, he might have ‘man boobs’ which happens only due to the accumulation of fat tissue. You have to differentiate between this and Gynecomastia.
Hence, now that you know how to treat this hormonal condition among men called Gynecomastia, you can seek help of professional sources like The Health Clinic where you can speak to doctors who can tell you more about it.
