Just Found Out About This

[Logical Vulcan]

Hi, I just found out about this condition yesterday from my doctor and have spent much of today and yesterday sorting out what it all means and researching it and stuff.  I have half a mind to post some thoughts on Facebook about it - but - nah - I'll keep quiet for now and just jot it down here instead.
I'm almost 38 years old and relatively obese (250 lbs).  I've been a little sensitive about my chest when swimming, but really, more sensitive about my gut.  I just figured the chest size was what normally came along with the obesity and it would go away if I lost some weight.  I have had multiple lipoma (benign fatty tumors), which were biopsied in high school and confirmed to be non-malignant.  The doctors told me to come in again if they ever caused pain or discomfort.  Over the past several months, I thought that lipoma near the nipple region embedded in fat were causing me pain and discomfort.  I decided to come into the doctors in case they weren't lipoma at all but instead some other kind of malignant tumor.  It was pretty weird when the doctor told me they weren't lipoma at all, but instead breast tissue.  And that I had actual breasts.  And that she would order a mammogram for me just to be on the safe side since I brought up various pains.  After researching Gynecomastia a bit, I'm sure nothing will turn up and the pains were just normal pains associated with the condition, but yeah, I'll be sure to check just in case.
Now to figure out what that means.  My first thoughts were actually that it was pretty awesome.  I've had my fair share of gender bending fantasies.  I enjoy playing video games as female characters and walking around with a female avatar in Second Life as a way to indulge in those fantasies.  Dang, these are "real" breasts?  I've entertained thoughts of cross-playing as female anime or video game characters, but would never go through with it because I would look awful.  I gotta do a quick check on my gender identity here.  Heh, definitely male and want to be a male, those really are just fantasies after all.  I've been single almost my whole life and may well be single the rest of my life.  These might be the only breasts I'll ever touch.  I've been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (now just a part of Autistic Spectrum Disorder).  I thrive on being alone, have a great job working from home, and I would need to somehow convince myself that I wouldn't be miserable or make any potential spouse miserable if I were to get married, and am really quite happy with things.  One nice thing about being single is that you can indulge in the beauty of almost any women in the world, real and fictional, in all their splendid diversity, without feeling like you're cheating on someone.  Women are awesome.  I am interested in them and interested in what they are interested in and interested in knowing what it would be like to be one of them.  And now I have this one thing that I can oddly relate to them with.  Getting surgery never crossed my mind.  I don't really care what others think and am really too lazy to consider it.  Why keep them?  What do they mean to me?  Can I walk down the street with some pride?  Maybe they're a symbol of solidarity between me and the female gender?  Maybe they're a visible representation of my feminine side?  Or maybe they're just there.  I don't know how I'll feel down the road.
I was oblivious before, so now I kind of feel like Adam and Eve, who didn't realize they were naked before they took the fruit.  I certainly hope I don't become self-conscious about them.  I wonder how long I've been like this and if others had noticed but just didn't say anything.  I was actually a tall and skinny guy as a child through high school, so obesity didn't play a role.  I have to strain to think if they were like this as an adolescent.  I don't recall ever having a washboard chest at that time though, so it's quite possible the condition did exist back then, only less pronounced.  I probably compare myself to my peers less than others do, so I never noticed.  I would have considered chest size on a guy as a continuum with of course some guys having really flat or muscular chests, with others with more rounded in the chest area, with no concept of what was "normal".   I think I would have been able to tell the difference between a guys' and a girl's chest.  No one ever teased me about me over this, possibly because I wasn't as socially active as some others and if they were going to tease me about something, it would be about something like my mannerisms, grades, or faith.  Maybe I was spared a source of some misery.  Or maybe it's really something brought on later in life.  I gained weight during college, and did take some Omeprazole maybe five years ago for some gerd, which I see can cause this condition, and also lost a lot of weight rapidly 290 lbs down to 200 lbs due to various medical issues around that time, only to have much of it restored by today (250 lbs). 
Now I'll have to see if I can just ignore this and go on as I always have.  We'll have to see if it develops further and I feel the need for accommodating clothes in the future and if it ever comes up in conversation.

[hammer]

First of all, welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you have a good attitude about having breast! I've had them all my life too, from a teen and now at 57 due to health issues I've grown to a 46H size bra. I've had the support of my wife and family and even the friends that know!

I wish you all the best in what ever you decide to do from this point on with your new found understanding of the fact that what you have are breast!

Bob

[walt]

hi and welcome , I have had breasts since my early teens , went through the usual teasing in school . now im 56 and don't care what others negative opinion is , I wear a bra almost daily and am up to a 48 B cup and still growing . so in whatever you decide good luck and don't let the bums wear you down!!

[walt]

sorry old pix and it ended up here instead of the pix post

[Logical Vulcan]

thanks.  went to an electronics store today and had to sample the chest size of the other male shoppers.  i think i have nothing to be self conscience about, at least when walking in public in a t-shirt.  just about every guy i saw had some sort of noticeable protrusion under their shirt.  maybe in another country, it might be rare, but in America, at least in electronic shops full of adults, it seems to be pretty much the norm.  don't know how many of these guys actually had a case of gynecomastia, not sure if you could really tell just by looking with clothes on or even with the shirt off.  i'll have to do a similar quick spot check at a beach or something to see if it's even worth thinking about there.
with it so prevalent with the men who have gray hair, i wonder if i should look at this as an unfortunate sign of early aging, rather than an odd feature that belongs to another gender. kinda like my recently receding hair line.  wonder if they're related?

[Logical Vulcan]

Just had the mammogram and ultrasound.  No cancer, so that's good, but I wasn't expecting it.  The real news is no actual gynecomastia.
Turns out the doctor who sent me there was incorrect.  The hard tissue around my breasts really was lipoma after all, not breast tissue, as I had initially assumed.  Sometimes when you feel like you step into the twilight zone, you really did just step into the twilight zone, and you can return to reality.
The specialist doctor who looked at the results said that I didn't have much breast tissue, not enough to be called gynecomastia.  Instead, he just called them fatty breasts.  The big relief is that all I have to do to lose them is to lose some weight, and not have to worry about them remaining.  Also, I don't have to worry about some kind of hormonal imbalance.  I still have to wonder if maybe I was just starting to develop breast tissue - it would explain why my nipples would become painful when rubbing against my t-shirt for a couple days occasionally - but I'm sure there's other explanations for that.  I think I'll stop thinking about it.
It would have really been awful if the first doctor just told me I had a lot of breast tissue, and then didn't schedule the mammogram for some reason like "it's rare for men to get breast cancer".  I'd have the impression I had female breasts for who knows how long. 
Ah well, it was an "interesting" experience for half a week.  Learned a lot about breasts at least and appreciate them more now =)

[hammer]

That is some great news, Now, for some bad news! 

Your chest is the last and the hard place to lose that fat, but I do wish you all the luck!