Breast Gynecomastia (Large Male Breast)
General Anesthesia
What is gynecomastia?
Gynecomastia is when the breasts are large in men, just like in women. Although the known breast is a female organ and dysfunctional in men, it is present as an image. Being large disturbs men socially and they want to get rid of them. This operation to get rid of this big breast is called gynecomastia surgery.
Who has gynecomastia (Large Male Breast)?
Gynecomastia is when the breasts are large in men, just like in women. Although the known breast is a female organ and dysfunctional in men, it is present as an image. Being large disturbs men socially and they want to get rid of them. This operation to get rid of this big breast is called gynecomastia surgery.
Most of the nose aesthetics, hair transplantation, breast augmentation and fat removal procedures are performed in Turkey. Naturally, there are more applications regarding these issues.
Information requests related to gynecomastia, which means a large male breast, are at the same time with the applications of the above-mentioned procedures. It is not at all strange to encounter this in this period, where men attach more importance to their visuals.
If we look at the rates of gynecomastia in society:
In the neonatal period: It depends on the passage of high estrogen through the placenta during pregnancy, and this period is said to be seen in up to 50% of male babies.
In the old age: As the age progresses, the androgen ratio in the body decreases and the fat ratio increases. Since the estrogen production site is adipose tissue, estrogen is actually produced from androgen-produced precursors.
What is the rate of gynecomastia seen in adolescence?
Gynecomastia in adolescence has a rate of around 40% in male adolescents aged 10-16 years. According to a study in Ankara in 1989, the rate was announced as 34.6%. The highest rate was found to be 65% in the period called “peak height velocity” when the growth rate was the highest. Gynecomastia continued in 27.1% of adolescents for one year and in 7.7% for two years. In a study conducted on adults, it was found that 4% of men have gynecomastia with a diameter greater than 4.0 cm. Source: Turkish Medical Association
A distinct breast tissue is formed in men who are slightly overweight in adolescence, even if they lose weight later. The fat and breast tissue contained in this tissue varies from person to person. Sagging of the skin may occur in proportion to the size of the breast. Surgery is selected according to the amount of breast and the rate of sagging in the skin.
Today, many people who want to get rid of the inactive environment created by city life go to indoor sports halls close to their homes. As they encounter many peers in these environments, they find the opportunity to evaluate themselves a lot. Of course, these evaluations are sometimes wrong. Young men who develop muscle tissue in the rib cage, which we call pectoral muscle, think that it is gynecomastia. There are even applications to our surgeons in this direction. Breast tissue is prominent in gynecomastia. Often the nipple is large and visible from the outside.
Why does gynecomastia occur?
During adolescence; It is natural for men to have growth, fullness and tenderness in their breasts due to hormonal reasons. Because the body is in a hormone mess. If this situation, which should be temporary, becomes permanent for various reasons, it is called gynecomastia.
Men who are overweight during this period are more likely to develop gynecomastia.
Young people with gynecomastia try to hide this by wearing loose clothes and walking hunched over. Especially in the summer, they do not even swim to hide this.
Although gynecomastia mostly occurs as described above, sometimes unilateral or bilateral gynecomastia may be encountered depending on hormonal, tumoral causes (testicular tumor) or the drugs used.
How is gynecomastia understood?
A detailed history, imaging techniques (such as ultrasound, MRI) and hormone analysis may be required for differential diagnosis of the mentioned conditions. While classical gynecomastia starts and continues during adolescence, gynecomastia due to other reasons may occur at later ages and unilateral rates are higher.
How is gynecomastia classified?
- In the first stage, it is limited in size, there is no looseness or sagging of the skin.
- In the second phase, it looks like a large female breast, but there is no sagging of the skin.
- In the third stage, there is additional looseness of the skin that requires surgical treatment.
- The fourth stage breast is like a real female breast.
What do our surgeons do in gynecomastia treatment?
If the breast tissue is not extremely large, they remove the fat tissue with a special liposuction method. Later, if the nipple is still large and prominent, they take the mammary gland by entering it with a moon-shaped incision under the nipple.
Since only fat and mammary gland intake will not be sufficient for extremely large and even sagging breasts, the breast tissue is taken together with the skin on it with gynecomastia surgery. The nipples are reduced to an appropriate extent and place them where they should be, in the form of a skin patch.
Thus, the surgeon have a completely flat rib cage without breast prominence. The only disadvantage of this procedure is a thin line scar on the rib cage. This does not cause any serious visual distress in the male chest, which is mostly hairy. In fact, when the lower pectoral muscle is developed in men who do sports, it has a natural fold appearance as it coincides with its adhesion.
All men have the right to wear what they want and to be able to swim comfortably without being ashamed. Gynecomastia is a problem that can be solved in just one day without staying at the hospital overnight.
From what age can gynecomastia surgery be performed?
Gynecomastia surgery can be performed from the age of 17 with the end of adolescence. But if there is not much psychological problem, it would be better to wait by the end of age 18.
What should be done before gynecomastia surgery?
In the pre-operative period for gynecomastia, aspirin should not be taken for 10 days and some laboratory controls should be performed. In addition, the doctor should definitely be informed if there are important illnesses in the patient’s history and medications he uses regularly. Smoking is an undesirable behavior in gynecomastia surgery as in all surgeries. It negatively affects wound healing.
What should be considered after the surgery?
Patients who underwent gynecomastia surgery under local anesthesia on the same day, patients who were operated under general anesthesia can go home the next day.
A chest corset is started to be worn immediately after the operation. This corset is very easy to use. The corset should be worn for three weeks. After the third week, it is beneficial to wear a corset only during the daytime, especially when doing heavy activities. This period is about 6 weeks.
In the first days of the operation area, edema, tenderness, pain and even bruises may occur. These usually begin to decrease gradually after the first 2-3 days. Sensitivity can last for weeks. Although numbness, stinging, burning is not in a size that makes daily life difficult, it may appear as the patient’s complaints. After the second week, swimming in the pool and sea is allowed. It is tried to avoid factors that may cause edema such as steam bath, sauna, solarium for 6 weeks. Similarly, it is necessary to do heavy sports and avoid activities that may cause blows to the chest area for 6 weeks.
What are the risks of gynecomastia surgery?
Bleeding and related blood accumulation are also possible after gynecomastia surgery in which every surgical intervention. This risk can be reduced with the use of drains.
The possibility of infection is greatly reduced by the antibiotics used.
Irregularities may occur in the rib cage. This situation can be eliminated to a great extent with massages. If there is a permanent condition, this can be corrected by fat injection.
Long-lasting numbness, tingling and color changes can be seen in gynecomastia surgeries performed with liposuction. These usually improve over time.