any awkward/embarrassing stories

[zoidberg]

I've kinda halfway come to accept my condition until someday in the future I hope to have enough income to afford surgery (fingers crossed).  until then, I just had a question.  I've had some serious awkward moments in my life, like when I decided to go swimming without a shirt after gaining some weight and my gyno was worse.  I mean, there's nothing wrong there, but looking back, and with other's reactions, I was mortified.  I really respect those who would not be embarrassed - i'm just looking for similar stories. 
my gyno is worse than it was, and it's definitely noticeable.  at work, I have to wear company shirts - the one we wear most often works pretty well and i'm pretty comfortable in it.  but the past month we've had to wear a t-shirt that looks more obvious, and there's this one lady at work who every time we talk, she's glancing down to my chest.  that feels pretty awkward.  what helps is that i'm getting close to 50 and I guess it's more of a 'mature' guy thing to have some gyno moreso now days. 
if you have any stories and how you feel/cope, i'd love to hear them.  being a part of this group helps me feel more normal and like others understand. 
thanks, and hope you all are doing well  

[hammer]

At 58 I worry about my grown children and my grandkids, I don't give a damn what others think about me or how I look, what I wear, who I like or vote for! I need a 46H bra to support my breast that I've got due to health issues, not that I wanted them, but got beyond my control!

I've had 8 surgeries including 3 major back 2 total knee replacement I see no need to go through a double mastectomy. It is about priorities! Mine may be much different then yours.

I live by two models that can be found at the bottom of all my post.

Good luck to you.

Bob

[HairyKnockers]

Embarrassment is really in the eye of the beholder.  For a situation to be embarrassing or awkward you must perceive it as such, otherwise it is just an ordinary occurrence.  It is you that makes it embarrassing for yourself, not the situation and not the person who said something to you.  With that said you must admit that a man with girl boobs does catch your attention, like “what is wrong with this picture” sort of thing.  You are likely to have someone look at your chest like the lady you mentioned at work.

Woody Allen said comedy is tragedy plus time.  At 13 or 14 years old what was devastating to me doesn’t much matter now that I am older.  Life’s experience and understanding what causes gynecomastia takes away most of the embarrassment.  So I will tell you something that happened when I was a freshman in high school that I thought was terrible and now is actually sort of funny.

In high school I was on the swim and water polo teams.  Our uniform was a tiny little Speedo that barely covered your junk.  So unlike the football or baseball player who could hide his gynecomastia our chests and just about everything else was in plain view of everyone.  I had been swimming since I was 5 years old and really wanted a spot on the swim team.  I practiced and lifted weights like crazy so I could make the team as a freshman.  About the same time my chest blossomed.  I figured it was fat from all the high protein and carb diet.  So I worked my chest more to build up my pectoral muscles.   Which of course big pecs just made my boobs look bigger.

I had gone to school with this girl since first grade that I liked.  She was sort of shy and self-conscious but she was pretty and I liked her.  One thing she lacked were breasts, flat as a board, ironic for a guy with boobs to like her.   Swim practice was every school day and some weekends if we didn’t have a meet.  I asked her to come by swim practice one day in class and I would walk home with her, a first for me.  She seemed to like that idea.  She was sitting in the stands at the end of practice and I went over to talk to her as the other guys on the team went into the locker room.  About the time I got over to her one of my “friends” on the team yelled, “Hey Becky, give him your bra—he needs it more than you do!”  Of course a bunch of them laughed.  She thought I had put them up to it so she stormed off and never spoke to me again. That was decades ago, maybe she has forgotten but I doubt it.

The moral of the story is don’t be like Becky.  The joke was on her I eventually got a lot hotter girls than her—the swim team was pretty popular.

[zoidberg]

thank you for the story .  I appreciate you sharing your story and your perception on it and this stuff as a whole.  i'm glad you have a good perspective on it and went on to date other ladies.  in my view of myself, i'm seeing my body changing more to the silverback gorilla stage as my ex and I used to call it.  a heaver upperbuild including gyno, some belly, legs still the same so appearing thinner, or maybe thinner.  I like my build well enough if left to myself, but not only do I want to for once in my life have a flat chest, but I am very preoccupied as to what others think of me and i'm very sensitive to it (which is totally fine and normal).  I totally accept both parts of me, and hope to have the surgery sometime when I can afford it.  but in the mean time with all my gray hair and such, it's something I kinda accept. 
thanks again for sharing - that was exactly what I was hoping for.  just another's experience with gyno and how it turned out.  i'm really glad you shared  

[aboywithgirls]

At the time, I was embarrassed but now, I'm actually grateful. 
I was 13 or 14 when I went to my room after school and my laundry was folded on my bed to put away. I noticed that there was about a half a dozen bras in the stack on top. I thought my mom had misplaced them. But there was no mistake. She knew that I had breast development and that they were soar. She had bought some new bras for my older sister and wanted me to try her hand me downs. I resisted but eventually gave in and turned out that I was a 34C in the 8th grade. The bra made a huge difference in comfort. I got by, wearing many layers and almost nobody knew. I think the most embarrassing part was showing my sister and trying on her new bras and realizing that I could fill out a D cup as well. 
I now wear a 36G in most of my bras. I don't mind wearing a bra for comfort and support. I am glad that I was introduced to wearing a bra at a young age. I know that a bra is not made for women, they're made for breasts. 

[HairyKnockers]

Yikes, a 34C in the 8th grade!  Most girls are not that big at that age, but they certainly want to be.  Mine were more like the A to B range at that point in time.  Were you at all overweight at that age or was it all in your chest?  A couple of my friends were overweight and they had really big breasts but we all just thought it was pure fat.  One of the guys was built like a sumo wrestler and his were huge and just hung down his chest.  But no one gave him crap about it either or he would sit on them!

Funny thing about the weight issue, I got more crap about having boobs than the heavy guys because I was a swimmer and I was so thin.  On me they were boobs on a fat guy they were just more fat.  I will grant you on me they were probably more noticeable as breasts.

[aboywithgirls]

I was slightly overweight then. But even now, I'm 5'10 and 180lbs. I wear a 36G in most of my bras. My sister and I actually wear the same size. Now that could be either embarrassing or a good thing depending on how you look at it . lol 

[zoidberg]

thank you for the story - I was never measured, but got down to 154lb at 6' my senior year of high school trying to loose my gyno.  it decreased alittle, but was still noticeable.  if having gyno were as common as having a flat chest for the average male not overweight or past 40/50 years, i'd feel so much more comfortable since it'd be so common place.  it seems that having some gyno is more common now and I do feel less awkward about it.  my chest doesn't have any discomfort or soreness so I don't feel the need for a bra, but i'm tempted to check into a better fitting compression shirt than the ones I have. 
one experience that contributed to my discomfort with it - it was my freshman year at high school and i'd been running and lifting light weights a lot.  i'd lost a lot of fat and weight, but my chest was more noticeable then with the difference.  one day, just before history class started, another kid looked at me and started laughing saying 'you've got breasts'.  that really hurt and stuff like that is hard to shake sometimes.  I was able to date some and later got married with no problem, but it's always been on my mind. 
thanks again for the stories guys