Milk Glands and Ducts

[dex]

Does anyone know what happens to your Milk Glands and Ducts in the gyne op?

Are they removed?  Left alone?

[hypo]

Just out of interest what makes you ask the question?

[dex]

In 90% of cases Breast Cancer in men and women starts in either the milk ducts or the milk glands.

I was wondering, if the ducts and glands are removed then is this another advantage of the operation?

or is it a disadvantage.........because.......breast cancer that starts in the glands/ducts does so because milk is produced but cannot escape throught he nipple because of a blockage.

I'd hate to think that following the operation that there was a blockage or no way for any amount of milk to secrete through the nipple (if the gland is still in place).  Because in time this may build up and potentially be cancerous?

Having said this, presumably if no milk has ever secreted through the nipple pre op then there is no chance the gland will produce milk post op.

Sorry, I'm just thinking out loud.

[hypo]

No that's fair enough.  

40% of all male breast cancers occur in men that have had gynecomastia, which sounds very worrying until you find out one other statistic, which is;

Breast cancer only accounts for 1% of all male cancers.

[Paa_Paw]

I do not usually get into a surgical discussion because I still have my breasts and I lack personal experience in that area.

The answer to your question is something that I can help with though.

It depends on what kind of surgery you have.

Removal of glandular tissue generally requires excision often followed by Liposuction to sculpt the chest.  Liposuction alone would reduce fatty breasts but have little to no effect on glandular tissue.

[hypo]

I can see the logic, but no it doesn't quite work like that.

You see that is 40% in a statistically small group of men who have been defined by the medical profession as having gynecomastia (that means pretty bad by the way the medical profession do not raise this as an issue otherwise).

I’ll use a silly example (please place no weight in it, it is used to illustrate only).

If 40% of colour blindness occurs in all men with three nipples and 60% of colour blindness occurs in men with two nipples, you can suppose that it is better to be in the former group.  But what if there are only 100 men in the first group and there are 20,000 men in the second group.

That would mean that the statistical incidence/correlation is much worse in the former group.

Having dispatched the awful analogy (sorry about that one:) you can see the point.

All that said, the pleasing fact remains that breast cancer only accounts for 1% of all male cancers and that is a small % irrespective of how it is carved up.