Why Some Men Grow Breasts
Time:
Junior high school isn’t easy for anyone. But for Merle Yost, it was constant dread. He was tortured with bras hung over his locker, the constant assignment to the “skins” team during gym class, and a particularly brutal nickname (”Tits”). “I learned really early to cover up and hide, and I spent the next 20 years wearing big shirts to cover my chest,” he recalls.
Two decades and two breast-reduction surgeries later, Yost, 49, is a California psychotherapist, author and host of a Web site that deals with the condition that caused him to grow abnormally large male breasts, gynecomastia. He’s one of thousands of men who suffer from this common disorder—many unknowingly. It’s a condition that can cause permanent damage to a guy’s self esteem—especially if it occurs at a young age. “I haven’t gone swimming in five years, and I have never taken my shirt off in public,” says one 19-year-old in a post on Yost’s site.
The condition may be most devastating to teens, but it can strike at any age. In fact, nearly 50 percent of all men will experience gynecomastia at some point in their lives, according to Glenn Braunstein, the chairman of medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and the author of a recent New England Journal of Medicine article on the condition. Many sufferers don’t know that gynecomastia is a medical condition caused by hormone fluctuations and weight gain. Nor do they know that exercise or weight loss alone may not be effective in getting rid of male breasts once they develop.
Before male readers start to freak, we should point out that gynecomastia is both treatable and benign, generally caused by hormonal ups and downs that can occur naturally during infancy, puberty and middle age. And while nearly 65 percent of boys in puberty will experience it to some degree, in 95 percent of those cases the condition will resolve on its own, says Braunstein. Adult-onset gynecomastia is another story. It can sometimes be hereditary but is more commonly spurred by conditions like obesity, chronic kidney disease or an overactive thyroid, as well as by certain medications like steroids that cause hormone levels to shift. And while doctors don’t know why it resolves itself in some people but not in others, some studies indicate that it will eventually abate in up to 80 percent of adult men.
Franchie
One of the biggest culprits for adults—and one that’s easily avoidable—is weight gain. Braunstein, a hormone expert, explains that when men gain weight, they’re not just getting bigger; the extra weight is actually changing their hormone production—and not in a way that most men would like. By nature, fat tissue manufactures the female hormone estrogen, which in turn stimulates breast tissue—meaning that significant weight gain will always be associated with some sort of breast growth, even in men, according to experts. A person who’s overweight will be fatter all around, and maybe even develop the excessive breast fat that doctors call pseudogynecomastia—the appearance of male breasts caused by fat alone. But Dr. Elliot Jacobs, a New York plastic surgeon who specializes in gynecomastia treatment (and who suffers from the condition himself), says that most really overweight men are developing actual breast tissue, not just some extra padding. Doctors say that virtually all obese men (those who have a body mass index of 30 or greater, experience some degree of breast growth. And once that breast tissue is established, it doesn’t go away on its own—no matter how much you exercise or diet, warns Braunstein. Considering that 75 percent of Americans are likely to be overweight by 2015, according to a recent John Hopkins study, men may want to think twice about supersizing that cheeseburger.
The seeming inevitability of “manboobs” has even spurred some middle-aged men to embrace the situation. How else to explain all those fleshy bare chests at the beach and sporting events? And manboobs even entered the cultural lexicon with a “Seinfeld” episode in which Kramer designs a “bro” to help with George’s father’s breast development. Today “manboobs” are celebrated on Web sites and in songs.
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See Kipp, Paul and Eric?? There’s hope….
November 9th, 2007 at 10:07 amBut for franchie???? Nope.
Sully, one more complexe of inferiority you developped into breast ?
November 9th, 2007 at 10:09 amI bet Harry Weed has breasts. Probably a pussy to. Or is it that he just is a pussy?
November 9th, 2007 at 10:14 amSimple cure… eat less, exercise more.
November 9th, 2007 at 10:14 amIf that pic really is you franchie and you really are a fat dude then you need to go *try* and put some clothes on…
November 9th, 2007 at 10:20 amDamn you beat to this one. Catch you on another one
Anybody agree with my culture police for America post?
November 9th, 2007 at 10:21 amSully
you know how I look, (you went on my blog)
spare us your idiotic “skuds”
your an academic, aren’t you, or is it a disguisement like the virginal DC
November 9th, 2007 at 10:26 amThis is making me think about that guy from “Jaws”- the shirtless old man on the beach with C-cups sagging down to his bellybutton. Not sure which Jaws it was, but I remember being one horrified 8 year old. I will never be able to erase it from my mind!
November 9th, 2007 at 10:40 amSully’s a University professor? WOW Scary stuff.
Right Wing Fundamentalist “University” no doubt. God God praise the Lord.
I am praying for you. Just like Georgie does in a bind. Pray
November 9th, 2007 at 10:44 amJesus! You guyz, these photos are scarring me! Can we please get back to some dead terrorist shots, you know hollowed out craniums and such.
November 9th, 2007 at 10:44 amThat second picture down, that dudes boobs look pretty official
November 9th, 2007 at 10:49 amAnyone else think its odd that there is an actual name for this yet everyone who has boobs also seems to have a giant gut too? hmmm
November 9th, 2007 at 10:50 amFranchie, what’s really sad is that the effeminate guy in the second pic, has bigger tits than you do!
P.S., Thanks for thinking I’m a virgin…….you obviosly aren’t!
November 9th, 2007 at 10:55 amyou obviosly aren’t! no, but it is not a sin in my country, plus I contribuate to the repopulation of the EU dna
But I was told your not virgin either
And, Sully, please don’t hide behind DC, you look more stupid
November 9th, 2007 at 11:07 amLOL…….Sully, are you hiding behind me?
Yes, Franchie….you do your country proud. Remember the story of the old woman who lived in a shoe?
(that outa confuse the shit out of her)
November 9th, 2007 at 11:19 amNo, I don’t know that story, but I am sure as an academic you will provide me a link
and your older than me
November 9th, 2007 at 11:24 amWHOA!
Glad I ate lunch already!
Just shows though that there are both kinds of “Boobs” in Hollywood! Vinnie BOOBarino! Hey Franchie, enjoyed a nice Aussie Shiraz last night w/dinner c’est bon…
November 9th, 2007 at 11:29 amsteve m,
developp your thought, you know, I am stupid
November 9th, 2007 at 11:33 amHey, now that I’m well past teenage time and don’t care about the mocking, doesn’t seem such a horrid thing. If I could do it, I might never leave the house…
November 9th, 2007 at 12:16 pm“LOL…….Sully, are you hiding behind me?
”
Franchie thinks anybody smarter than her is an “academic” cuz she hates “knowledge” and prefers “reality”.
November 9th, 2007 at 12:36 pmNever enters her brain that they might be connected somehow.
did ya finnish your burger with a campbell soup sully papy, or your fried eggs ?
no, I don’t hate “knowledge, but the “form” you give to knowledge ;
and remember, “a well made head is better than a full head” : “mieux vaut une tête bien faite qu’une tête bien pleine”, Montaigne
you should read this first french writer and philosopher, it will help you to stay at your atom place on this planet
November 9th, 2007 at 12:53 pmSullen, gotta be a villan description for soil, souiller, salir :thank you to remind me that you invert DC and you, but the discourse was so obviouly yours
November 9th, 2007 at 12:55 pmYou were embarrassed before on philosophy and now you bring up Montaigne?
November 9th, 2007 at 1:05 pmThe only renaissance the french are gonna see is (hopefully) the one Sarkozy shoves down your throats. Otherwise it’s the one the Moooselems cut that throat with.
Franchie
But he also said “Que sçais-je?”
Montaigne admired Socrates. Socrates was always conscious of how much he didn’t know, and claimed superiority to unthinking men only in that he was aware of his own ignorance.
November 9th, 2007 at 1:18 pmOMG. Diet and excercise would work for them. I do mixed martial arts for excercise. Guarantee they wouldn’t have a problem with that problem anymore, if they adopted a similar routine. Same for fat kids in school. Get off the computer, put down the nintendo games and get in shape.
November 9th, 2007 at 1:18 pmtoo bad for you Sarko “hates” the conceptual elite thinkers
Montaigne is not the alone philosopher I know,
Wittgenstein is the last ;
I can’t say I have the academic knowledge of them but enough to know their purpose, and my preferate is Epitecte, very moral though ; reading his manual saved me a few years ago from stressing problems
November 9th, 2007 at 1:30 pm“too bad for you Sarko “hates” the conceptual elite thinkers”
I share a few of his views… it is the moral relativists like yourself that tend toward “conceptual elite”.
“…very moral though ; reading his manual saved me a few years ago from stressing problems”
Yeah, morals will do that
November 9th, 2007 at 1:41 pmFranchie.
“Every man is in his own person the whole human race without a detail lacking….I knew I should not find in any philosophy a single thought which had not passed through my own head, nor a single thought which had not passed through the heads of millions and millions of men before I was born.”
November 9th, 2007 at 1:56 pm- Mark Twain
“Yeah, morals will do that”
if I analyse your sentence, you make a general statment ; that implies that I know what you means by “morals”, and “will do” that means it is obvious ; but neither you take the primary sens of moral as a fact that can’t be denied or the actions of morals ;
you just colored your sentence with your pre-concepts, a grille de lecture as we say, of moral choices, that are of cource condamning my ways of doing moral
so your a cheater who want to get a life
I am amused to give you the replique to see how far you can go
November 9th, 2007 at 2:07 pmsteve m
yeah Socrate was the one who make the person spirit to awake
yeah, you should link Marc Twain to Sully
but my question has been responded, WTF means : “enjoyed a nice Aussie Shiraz last night” ?
November 9th, 2007 at 2:20 pm“…you just colored your sentence with your pre-concepts”
Of course I did. We all do it every day. Except you I guess.
As Carl Sagan observed: ‘If you want to make an apple pie from scratch first you need to create the universe.’
It is blindingly obvious that you WISH TO PORTRAY YOURSELF as some free wheeling free-thinker that invents her universe all over again each morning. But that is not obvious at all in your words.
November 9th, 2007 at 2:28 pmJust take a trip to Disney World and get over yourself.
lol
Seriously though, that’s what happens when you get lazy. These guys need to get off their asses, put down the TV (or video game) remote, and do some exercise.
November 9th, 2007 at 2:37 pmthe more I see my portrait through your mind, The more I am reassuring myself that I am kind of lucky not to be under your autority
“first you need to create the universe”, no problem I create it whenever I need it, and different rules for each ones
too bad for you the Disney universe desn’t fit my moral and aesthetic tastes
but thanks for the advice, I know how it costed to your “universe”
euh, make sure your old socks are not messing around
November 9th, 2007 at 2:45 pmI do not like manboobs.
The guy in the fourth pic needs a tarp.
November 9th, 2007 at 4:21 pm“Holy blowh hole Batman”.. “Beached whales!”
November 9th, 2007 at 4:31 pmVin Rouge..nothing more… Austarlian wines are fantastic -
November 10th, 2007 at 8:57 am