First off, I would like to commend everyone on here who is brave enough to post their stories on here. I have let this condition afflict me on the deepest of levels. I think it all started when I was in 5th grade, I remember looking back at picture of me at christmas time with my shirt off and it reminds me of what a pre-pubescent female with breast buds would look like. The problem didn't stop there. They continued to grow. At first I wasn't really aware that I was much different than anyone else, I knew I had a weight problem, but the breasts were kinda just there and I didn't pay attention until the ridicule started. I remember going to gym class in middle school and this one fat guy would call me "titty nipples". It was so mortifying, I was paralyzed with fear and embarassment, gym class was always a struggle for me. I remember being in band class and a girl telling me, "you need to get a bra buddy."...Stuff like this was commonplace day in and day out. At this time I still wore tee-shirts and would just keep pulling at the bottom and clamp my underarms so that the slack would ride in the front of the shirt. The weight continued to stack on, and the breasts continued to increase in size. Middle school was probably the worst of it for me because my breasts were so disproportionate to my waist and the rest of my frame that it stuck out like a sore thumb. I even remember being ridiculed by family members at the family reuinion, and people wondering why I wouldnt swim without my shirt. I couldn't come up with an excuse and people would insist that I take my shirt off. I would usually at that point just leave. High school was better in a sense because people made fun of my weight rather than my breasts, but it always hurt my feelings that people would make fun of my weight as if me being fat was some sort of secret that no one was supposed to find out about...lol. But in highschool I found my savior, the windbreaker! Light, yet durable, this bad boy was able to cover me up totally perfect. I became the kid who was known for always wearing the jacket no matter what, but that was so much better than anyone finding out that I had breasts. So I lost about a hundred pounds, and the size of my breasts didn't change, I found comfort in wearing very tight tee-shirts and wearing button up shirts over the top, which i still do to this day. Anyways, i developed a drug addiction, and that continued long into my nursing career, I was able to get married, and have a son, which is a blessing. I am divorced now, and looking back, whenever I was intimate with my wife, she never said anything about my breast size, and I never ever mentioned to her that it was a problem for me, I just told her i preferred button up shirts to tee-shirts. I have had other sexual partners since then, and even tho i'm thoroughly embarassed at the moment we get naked, I feel like if they liked me well enough to get to this point a set of man-boobs isn't going to deter them from doing the deal. And that is the weird thing, when it comes to females I'm totally comfortable, and I don't freak out when im in the sack, hell one girl i was with grabbed them during sex and said she liked them( i had bigger boobs than her!! )
![Roll Eyes ::)](https://www.gynecomastia.org/forum/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
. So i guess I have overcome the fear of inimacy with women, i just kinda take the grin and bear it approach, as much as it stings, the rewards of having a relationship vs. the self-imposed isolation and self-loathing is so much better. The only arena I have trouble in today at the age of 24 is around my male friends. For some reason, I cannot find myself being able to comfortably discuss this problem with them, and as bad as I want to go swimming in the summer, I can't force myself to just do it. I am really contemplating surgery, but the financing is the problem. I have such a severe case that I think I might be able to get my insurance company to pay for it, if i embelish symptoms of pain etc. As for the rest of my life, it is great, I have a beautiful little boy, I have begun to date again after my divorce, and I havent had drugs or alcohol for almost 16 months now. My heart goes out to all of my brothers out there who have been afflicted with this life-robbing condition. I feel like some of the best years of my life were lost out due to this goddamned condition, but I'm trying to stay positive and realize that some of my best years are still yet ahead of me. I'll be posting some pics soon, these babies are no joke!