The clinical term for the growth of breast tissue in men is known as Gynecomastia, from the Greek ‘gyne’ meaning woman and ‘mastos’ meaning breast. Without the ancient Greek jargon, most people know it as man boobs. Though there are a number of reasons why man boobs can form, the primary two are hormonal imbalances and excess fatty tissue, most common in obese and overweight men.

Puberty is one of the natural times when man boobs can develop because of natural hormone disruptions. Sometimes adolescent boys will notice small lumps under or near their nipples and buddy breasts appear, but this usually goes away with the passage of time. This is more likely to happen in overweight boys but even active and slim boys can experience it. No health risks are associated with this adolescent man boob growth, other than the social and psychological pain and stigmatisation that often goes with man boobs. Teenagers that experience breast development will often feel embarrassed about it, and feel isolated from their peers, who can sometime exacerbate the social stigmatisation, especially when sports and swimming (involving removal of the shirt) are involved.

Other causes of man boobs can come from a hormonal reaction to different types of medications, too much alcohol (especially beer) taking methamphetamines and marijuana and even from illnesses like cancer or liver disease.

There is another whopping cause of man boobs (leading to man boob epidemics) that can be very difficult to treat and can even become permanent breasts if left untreated, needing a surgeon’s knife to fix the problem. Anabolic steroids are the big baddies when it comes to leaving behind a nice pair of man boobs on once bulging pecks – they are leading men into epidemic proportions of gynecomastia. Steroids wreak such havoc on your hormones that they cause man boobs far quicker and more drastically than natural hormonal fluxes. Steroid induced man boobs are also far more persistent and hard to get rid of, and some that have been left untreated can require costly (risky, painful, etc) mamoplasty – not something any man wants to go through.

It is really not that uncommon for steroid using men (especially young men) to find that what they wanted to give them big strong bodies actually gave them feminine breasts, oh dear. Breast will develop because of the way that steroids disrupt the balance of estrogen and testosterone in the body. Because steroids inhibit testosterone production naturally, when stopping a steroid cycle if a user doesn’t add testosterone to the body the levels of estrogen will rise dramatically and a feminization of the body can occur – budding breast and shapely hips. Not really what a guy using steroids would want to look like, but that’s one of the many risks involved.

It takes some time after stopping steroids for the body to start producing testosterone again, and often when it does and hormone levels return to a balance the breast tissue formed can remain. Man boobs from other causes are easy to deal with compared to man boobs that come from steroid use.

Of course the best solution is to avoid steroids at all costs, as the other associated risks like shrunken testicles are no more pleasant than flabby man boobs. For those silly enough to persevere with steroid use there are estrogen blocking drugs that can help stop breast development. Body builders often use estrogen blockers, however there are not sufficient studies on the side effects to know for sure they may not just cause another kind of problem further down the track.

Given the proper treatment, man boobs are very receptive and if you aren’t on steroids you may be just a few months from getting back your manly chest, because there are plenty of options for trying to reduce man boobs. For those with man boobs as a result of steroids, don’t think surgery is the only way, try as many natural ways of eliminating your man boobs for good before opting for costly and risky surgery that might not even solve the problem.

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