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02/02/2010, According to the BBC News, for the second year in a row, male breast reduction surgery was the fastest growing segment of the cosmetic surgery industry in England. On the other side of the pond here in the United States, all signs are pointing up to male breast reduction surgeries to correct gynecomastia.
“We’ve seen an increase,” says cosmetic surgeon Dr. Robert Cattani, board member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. “In the last five years, I personally have done 200 to 300 male breast reductions per year.”
In the U.S., there were about 18,000 male breast reductions in 2008, the last year for which figures are available, estimates the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Although the number of male breast reductions in the U.S. in 2008 showed a 16% decrease from the previous year, the main reason for this points to overall economic reasons, since male breast reduction is generally not covered by health insurance.
“Many men are feeling the pressure from men’s magazines that weren’t even being published five or six years ago,” Rajiv Grover, a consultant plastic surgeon, told the BBC. “In addition, they are just realizing that they can get something done about it.”
“Obesity impacts the size of a man’s breasts,” he says. “I caution any patient before they get surgery to make certain they have exhausted all possibilities to try to correct with other means, like trying to lose weight.”
Gynecomastia is essentially excess body tissue and/or glandular, which can be caused by obesity to a number of illicit drugs, such as heroin and marijuana use.
“Men who are bothered by so-called “man boobs” shouldn’t assume that they have the problem because they are overweight,” says Dr. Sharon Rosenbaum-Smith, breast surgeon at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital.
“Most of the time, it’s just normal variance but you have to rule out underlying causes,” Rosenbaum-Smith says. “Guys’ boobs do go up and down in size as they gain or lose weight, just as women’s do. But if you’re a pot smoker and you are overweight, just changing your lifestyle may mean you wouldn’t need to have a breast reduction.”
Tags: gynecomastia, male breast reduction, man boobs
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