It is official, I’m just fat

[tryingtoaccept]

My doctor did a hormone check for both testosterone and estrogen levels on Tuesday but I haven’t heard back with the results yet.  I appreciate the support and advice on both sides of the gyne spectrum of tissue or fat.  I will give an update when they give me the results.

[Evolver]

Brock123,

Doesn't matter if you have pseudo or not, you are still welcomed here.  You may not be able to truly understand what those of us with actual breast tissue deal with from a physical standpoint but you still deal with the same mental issues of appearance and dealing with people. Just fat or fat and glands and lobules and ducts, the word gynecomastia is there. You belong as much as anyone else. You matter and so does your thoughts and opinions.

Sage advice.

It applies to me too, Brock123, and even though I already knew it, it is still nice to hear occasionally. Hope it lifted your spirits as much as mine. Thanks, Johndoe1.

[Amiga]

Also it's important to note that there's unlikely a 100% case of lipomastia nor a 100% case of gynecomastia but rather a range between. They're really not much different -- both affect us dudes physically, mentally, etc. in the same way. The only real difference is that being more on the lipomastia side of things gives an extra option for dealing with it in losing weight. But as lipomastia is typically due to greater weight and greater weight usually means more estrogen (and, ironically, the act of losing that weight releases stored estrogen) there'll almost certainly be some glandular material present too.

Also just like the thing itself there's a range of how we an deal with it from removal to living with it without support to support to even deciding to embrace it (to varying degrees). It's all good. At the end of the day it is our own choice (tempered a bit by family and society in many cases) how we deal with it and there's no wrong answer.

Myself, I'm going to focus on losing weight this year. Ten years ago I was 336 pounds, then I worked really hard to get down to 192 pounds for a couple of years. About five years ago I started gaining a bit back (I really was a bit too skinny at 192 as I'm 6'6" and people were asking if I was sick) and then the pandemic hit and that accelerated. I'm back up to 285 pounds but I'm committed to losing again. What's interesting is at 336 pounds I wasn't as big in my chest as I am now and I definitely don't remember tingling or soreness that I feel now. That combined with some ED that was really bad and still not great and my age (51 now, just had my birthday) leads me to suspect that I may be a higher percentage of glands than I was last time. I guess we'll see as I lose weight! I do know that I need to lose weight regardless of my chest just to be healthier. I'm walking four miles a day again (I can't do the ten a day I did when I lost weight a decade ago -- my knees and ankles won't let me) and trying to eat better.

As for dealing with it, I'm mostly just letting it be. I'm a 48A at worst and that's manageable. When I'm out walking my chest moves a bit but not too bad -- I've started wearing a polyester undershirt that has reduced some of the movement and chafing. If I get big enough to need support I'll likely go that route rather than removal. As for my name, Amiga, that isn't to indicate some eventual destination -- that's just my love of the Amiga series of computers from the 80s and 90s.

[Orb]

Amiga, Thanks for that.

  I guess I haven't given much thought as to the why or reason for a fellow member to be here.  When I joined I do so without answering a questionnaire on my breast type.  This site is only for shallow breast on men, full on top or bottom.  Weather I had dense breast, fatty breast or the perfect blend of both.  Point is we are all here to help each other navigate life living in the bodies nature has given us.  We help each other deal with societal pressures for what is often seen and felt as body shaming.  Brought on both by others and our self's.  Learning to accept, deal with, and live a good health and productive life.  Some times that means encouraging one to wear a support garment and other times be there to help one develop healthy life practices to improve better health, loose some weight, and ways to cope with the perception of how we feel others see us.  So... I don't care if your "just fat", or dense, (no pun intended), I'm glad your here.

Amiga,  thanks for the name clarification.  I was thinking along the Spanish line.  And that would be okay.  I need more female friends.

[Busted (and happy)]

Fat or true gyno? It matters little. Either way a fuller chest/breast needs care, management, support and comfort 
Mental coping usually takes longer, often much longer to sort out

[tryingtoaccept]

Thanks everyone for the comments.  I still have not heard back about my lab results, I guess it is due to the holidays.  I appreciate that you all do not ask us guys with pseudo to leave the group.  Like others have said we all have the same emotional battle rather we have true breasts or just fat.  We each have a different path to self-acceptance and some people get there much faster than others.  Whatever road we choose to take we need a little encouragement along the way.

[gotgyne]

I appreciate that you all do not ask us guys with pseudo to leave the group.  Like others have said we all have the same emotional battle rather we have true breasts or just fat.  We each have a different path to self-acceptance and some people get there much faster than others.  Whatever road we choose to take we need a little encouragement along the way.

This is completely right. We won't let us divide into people with gynecomastia and others with lipomastia. Often it is a combination of both forms. If someone has a lot of fat, the enzyme aromatase in the fat cells around the belly converts testosterone into estrogen. 
John

[Johndoe1]

I have lived with mine my whole adult life.  You do eventually get used to them. And if they become large enough, you will get used to that as well. 

[tryingtoaccept]

I got my hormone results back this morning.  My testosterone is low, 152, and my estrogen is 19.7.  I now have an appointment at the end of the month with a urologist to discuss therapy options.  I am now getting my problems figured out and hopefully getting back on track.

[Amiga]

That's great that you are making progress! Do you happen to know what the "normal" values of both are for your age?

[brock123]

I got my hormone results back this morning.  My testosterone is low, 152, and my estrogen is 19.7.  I now have an appointment at the end of the month with a urologist to discuss therapy options.  I am now getting my problems figured out and hopefully getting back on track.

Hey man, I know I don't come out here much, if at all anymore, but I agree with everyone else that you are definitely in the "right place" (Thank you Johndoe1, for your words!) I didn't really expound enough on my particular situation and how it might relate to you, and I apologize for that.

I am a scientifically/clinically proven "fatty chest guy". I do not have Gynecomastia, but my chest still bugs the crap out of me most every day. I don't remember when it first happened, but I do remember spending a great deal of my life avoiding T-Shirts at all costs (this was at a young enough point in my life that sweatpants also became taboo for our other particular adolescent problem that tends to "stand out" . For me, ANY weight gain first culminates in my chest. Conversely, any weight loss seems to culminate everywhere but my chest? Nature is cruel like that.

I have no real answers for you, I'm still working on it myself, but I have spent the past few months "manning up", both physically (OK, not really all that much) and psychologically. I've totally come clean with my wife about everything again, and she's been great about it. I admit I still prefer to be the one to do the laundry when the "bras" need to get washed, since it's still embarrassing to me, but over the holidays I was totally busted a few times and found my used sports bras and SPANX top hanging next to her real bras on the drying rack, without a single comment of any kind.

Granted, I have been working my "angle" for a while now, and I still feel like it's "an angle" as opposed to true acceptance to me, but I'm getting more OK with it as I allow others to become OK with it. Yeah, it "comes off" when things get intimate or I simply am not good with it at the time, but to me, if any female's acceptance is a concern, they are probably not for us. Women are so amazingly less shallow than men are in regard to appearance?

[Johndoe1]

I think the reason women are not shallow like men is that women are constantly judged on breast size, butt size, leg shape, tummy shape, hair style color, you name it. We have a taste of that due to our chests. 

[tryingtoaccept]

That's great that you are making progress! Do you happen to know what the "normal" values of both are for your age?

I was told for a guy in his late 40s the normal testosterone range is 300 to 800 and for estrogen it is 10 to 50. My doctor said my testosterone level was very low and she said my estrogen was in the lower normal range but both need looked at by a urologist.

[taxmapper]

I think the reason women are not shallow like men is that women are constantly judged on breast size, butt size, leg shape, tummy shape, hair style color, you name it. We have a taste of that due to our chests.

I agree and disagree.

Women are judged on looks. That's a eons old issue. its also why women want to look the best, to attract a mate. That's nature at work. Men however are judged also on looks and various physical aspects.

From Viking lore, Ivan the boneless.
Lebanese: Al- Aaraj (The Crippled) or Al-Abras (The Leper) or Tokyo Sexwale.  (not making that name up either.)

The need for men to be 'Alpha Male" or be considered weakling. Women look for guys with large pecks, square jaws, and manley he-man aspects.  any of them who say otherwise is lying,.

Competing for mating is part of the natural aspects of life.  but we also have intellect, and that is what separates us out from the lemmings and sheep.

Moreover to the "fat' issue, there are some in life's lottery who wind up with the short stick. (myself included.) So make the lemonade, take the seeds and grow a lemon grove and sell the lemons!

[Amiga]

That's great that you are making progress! Do you happen to know what the "normal" values of both are for your age?

I was told for a guy in his late 40s the normal testosterone range is 300 to 800 and for estrogen it is 10 to 50. My doctor said my testosterone level was very low and she said my estrogen was in the lower normal range but both need looked at by a urologist.

Thanks for the information!