by Dr JB Ratti, Senior Cosmetic Surgeon, Vital Clinic
In today’s time sedentary lifestyles / lack of physical activity is also very much on the rise due to excessive indulgence in recreational activities on smart phones. Social media like instagram, facebook, YouTube, etc are very addictive due to the very personalized of content delivery on these channels. Pollution in cities and unsafe environments are forcing parents to keep their kids indoors. Some Parents are known to use incentives of fast foods and calorie rich foods for motivating children to remain indoors and study due to the increased competition that students are faced with. This is the reason more and more boys facing the problem of enlargement of their breast and choosing to go for Gynecomastia surgery to get that model physique or to have a flatter more natural chest.
Reasons that Gynecomastia is on rise-
Male Breast results from an imbalance between androgen (male hormone) and estrogen (female hormone) at the time of puberty. In some boys, there is a fall in male hormone at the time of puberty for a variable period, instead of a rise, for reasons still not known. The female hormones in the body are then unopposed by the male hormones. The visible effect of this is that boys develop prominent breasts. Once the glands are laid down in the chest area, they do not regress. As the hormones stabilize, further development of the mammary glands stops. This is the physiological cause of development of Gynecomastia. 25-30% of boys tend to develop this condition. However, increasing obesity among young boys is causing the incidence to rise.
Childhood obesity is one of the other reasons that has become a major concern in recent times due to unhealthy lifestyle. Most of the urban population is very fond of fast-food that is high in calories. The extreme easy accessibility of fast foodcoupled with a decrease in physical exercises and less outdoor activities, more and more children are becoming obese. Excess fat in body produces more oestrogen. This hormone delays puberty in boys and causes feminine changes to happen. The most visible result of this is small or sometimes large breasts. Immature mammary glands (milk producing glands in female breasts) develop and give the shape of female chest to male chest. These glands are immature, but once formed, they are permanent in nature. Obesity also leads to accumulation of more fat leading to increase in their size. Along with these changes, the imbalance also causes a delay in/ less hair development on face, chest and other body areas a well.
For Gynecomastia , the best technique can be used is the Tumescent Awake Technique. It is one of the very significant advancement in anesthesia. Patient remains awake and conversant while the surgery is in progress or he may even go to sleep. There is no pain or discomfort throughout the surgery. Surprisingly, when this surgery is done under tumescent awake local anesthesia, there is virtually no pain even after the effect of anesthesia wears off. An operation under tumescent local anesthesia (AWAKE-SURGERY) is the safest and best way of doing male breast reduction surgery. Patient remains alert, fully mobile and can go home immediately after surgery.Also, Tumescent Awake surgery has a very high safety profile. There are no significant side effects.
Gynecomastia Surgery also help to removes mental stress in boys and restores their self-confidence which helps them to once again participate with friends in group activities and social gatherings. They see the remarkable change in their personality which makes them to get out of the depression caused due to the presence of male breasts.
Health Spectrum 