Gynecomastia or chest fat ?

[robert_vadra]

Hi All,

I'm 24 and my weight is 72.  Being a relatively healthier guy than most of my friends in college, I used to think that this somewhat bulky chest of mine was certainly due to excess fat and will  go away with time. But very recently I came across this fancy term - gynecomastia. I am starting to fear whether this is a serious condition from health perspective. When I closely observed it, I found that my chest consists largely of soft muscles and it feels like some veins near the nipple region have swollen(thick). I don't know if it relates to the case of gynecomastia. And if it is so, will it go away of it's own with exercise and proper dieting ?  Kindly provide your vies/guidance . 
I have attached the pics for clarity.
Thanks for help. 

[hammer]

Gynecomastia means male breast enlargement, you have breast enlargement, as far as I know I don't think it matters a lot whether if it is fat or breast tissue. Therefore you have gynecomastia as far as I know.

[TigerPaws]

Hi All,

I'm 24 and my weight is 72.  Being a relatively healthier guy than most of my friends in college, I used to think that this somewhat bulky chest of mine was certainly due to excess fat and will  go away with time. But very recently I came across this fancy term - gynecomastia. I am starting to fear whether this is a serious condition from health perspective. When I closely observed it, I found that my chest consists largely of soft muscles and it feels like some veins near the nipple region have swollen(thick). I don't know if it relates to the case of gynecomastia. And if it is so, will it go away of it's own with exercise and proper dieting ?  Kindly provide your vies/guidance .
I have attached the pics for clarity.
Thanks for help.

At 24 no amount of dieting and exercise will reduce the size of your breasts, and yes get used to calling them what they are.


What you need to do is to see an Endocrinologist to see if you have an underlying hormonal problem which can be anything from excess Estrogen or something more serious like a Pituitary tumor which is an abnormal growth(s) that develop on your Pituitary Gland.These can produce Prolactin which is the hormone that develops the breast tissue to lactate.

You could even have issues with your Liver which alters the chemistry of hormones. Or it could be something as simple as genetics, meaning that you are naturally predisposed to developing breasts.   

Once you have the results of your blood tests you will have a better idea of how to proceed, be that surgery, hormone (testosterone) injections/patch/topical gels or learning to live with your new assets.


 

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

You definitely have gynecomastia, which is always a combination of fat and breast tissue (in varying ratios).  It is virtually impossible to diet or exercise it away.  

Tiger Paws has made some suggestions, which you can follow up upon if you wish.  However, if you have had this condition for a number of years (perhaps dating back to puberty?), it is probably "idiopathic" (meaning we just don't know the cause) and all the testing would probably come up normal.

It all boils down to deciding to live with it (perhaps camouflaging with a compression under-garment) or having surgery to get rid of it forever.  If you choose the latter route, make sure you do your homework and find an expert in gyne surgery near you or consider traveling for such expertise.

Best of luck!

Dr Jacobs

[betterchestnow]

Hi Robert,

I lost 22 kgs through diet and exercise and still had gyneco. Finally just had surgery two days ago and saw how much breast tissue they removed. None of that would have gone away by exercise/weight loss alone.

It is possible to make your chest appear smaller through fat loss / low percentage of body fat, but it will not go away totally.

Honestly, I agree with the views here that gyneco is a combination of fat/breast tissue. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what percentage it is -- breasts are breasts. Once you get to down to a reasonable body weight, if you still have them, they are probably not going anywhere without surgery. I find the "true vs. false gynecomastia" distinction pretty useless for practical purposes.

Before my surgery, I believed most of mine was fat. But after seeing how much breast tissue my surgeon removed, I realize a lot of it was true breast tissue that was being pushed up by fat.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I think there are plenty of men who can live with some degree of gynecomastia and it doesn't bother them. For me, it was devastating and I had to get it fixed. But it's not the end of the world. One thing this whole experience has done for me is cause me to be less judgmental about other people's bodies. We all have imperfections. We learn to live with what we can. If it's something you can't live with, you might have to investigate surgery. For me, I gave it almost three years of consideration before finally having the surgery.