www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/fashion/14reduction.html
Metropolitan Museum of Art, clicked her computers mouse as images of young mens torsos flickered across the screen. Unlike the ancient Greek statues of Herakles or the bronze discus throwers in the newly renovated galleries across the street, the young men in Dr. Copelands digital images were a bit different: Rather than bearing the broad, flat chests of Greek athletes, their pectoral areas assumed a fuller, more feminine shape.
Enlarge This Image Damon Winter/The New York Times A BRICK WALL Nathan Johnson, a model and actor, struggled with obesity as a child. The patients were found to have enlarged male breasts, a condition known as gynecomastia. While it is not a new disorder, more men are seeking treatment for it, and new statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons show that the majority are adolescent boys. In 2006, according to the group, nearly 14,000 boys age 13 to 19 underwent surgery to reduce the size of their breasts. That represents 70 percent of all the male patients who had such surgery last year, and an increase of 21 percent over the previous year for that age group. In a culture that increasingly encourages young boys to be body conscious, demand for chiseled torsos and sculpted pecs is rising, so much so that the number of boys ages 13 to 19 who had breast reduction surgery last year is equal to the total number of all men who had the procedure just two years earlier, in 2004.
obesity, according to several plastic surgeons who were interviewed. At the same time, there is a new willingness among pediatricians and plastic surgeons to surgically treat enlarged male breasts.
But in a society that values chiseled abs and Rafael Nadal biceps, adolescent boys are willing to resort to surgery to fix problems their bodies might resolve later on their own. David Zinczenko, the editor in chief of Mens Health, said that many of his magazines readers are concerned about having enlarged breasts.
testosterone rush that finishes off adolescence, he wrote in an e-mail message. But add some fat in there, and a cut-happy approach to body oddities, and youve got teens under the cosmetic knife. It is certain that teenage obesity is a huge issue, she said. And awareness of plastic surgical procedures is much greater than it used to be.
Adolescent boys also no longer have the patience to outgrow a little breast puffiness. Boys these days are much more in tune with trying to look good, to try to look like the models on the covers of the fitness magazines, Dr. Be that good or bad, sometimes they can go overboard, and in this sense they are beginning to resemble teenage girls. Copelands patients, now 17, had breast reduction surgery at 15. His problem was not one of obesity but of glandular overgrowth. He was given anonymity, after saying he was still too embarrassed to speak publicly about the issue. I took my shirt off once, and a couple of kids laughed at me, and I never took my shirt off again, he said. His pediatrician was opposed to the surgery, but the young man, a student at a Manhattan private school, had the support of his parents. It sounds clich and kind of lame, but it just comes down to a point of embarrassment, he said. But this was simply genetic, and there was nothing I could do about it. Indeed, the condition is a punch line in sitcoms and movies. In a now-famous episode of Seinfeld, Kramer invented the Bro, a bra for men with breast development. uk, welcomes readers with the slogan, Welcome to Man Boobs. The site that says, were fat and were proud, and then quickly puts it T-shirt back on.
com, sell compression garments that purport to reduce the visibility of enlarged male breasts. Plastic surgeons in the United States suggested that the rise in popularity of professional golf may have also contributed to public awareness of gynecomastia; several prominent popular players have slightly enlarged chests. But in most adolescents who are not obese, the condition will resolve itself spontaneously as the boy progresses through adolescence and produces more testosterone, said Dr.
They have hopped up their testosterone levels, and so when they get off the stuff, there is a change in the hormonal milieu, said Dr. It can reset itself, but many times if they have abused steroids, you have to send them to an endocrinologist to address the problem. If that doesnt work, she said, they come back to her for surgery Surgeons who are referred a young patient by a pediatrician often will first call for a complete endocrinological workup to make sure that the breast enlargement isnt a transient hormonal fluctuation.
If the breasts are enlarged with not only fat but also extra glandular tissue, the surgeon must remove the fat and excise the glandular tissue. Occasionally, in extreme cases, a surgeon must remove fat, glandular tissue, excess skin and reposition the nipple, in which case the patient will have some scarring.
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