In Greek ‘Gyne means woman and ‘mastos’ means breast, and so the technical term for extra breast tissue on the chest in males is known as gyencosmastia. Leaving ancient Greece for a moment, the condition is more commonly referred to 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.

Hormonal imbalances can be from natural causes such as puberty. It is not uncommon for boys at puberty to bud small breasts and feel lumps near or under their nipples, but these usually vanish with time. Boys with a little extra weight are more likely to have breast development, but slim and healthy boys can also 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. Having man boobs as a teenager can often be very embarrassing and cause boys to shy away from sports and activities like swimming.

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. Of course it is anabolic steroid abuse, which is a huge cause of man boobs and is leading to increasing cases of the condition. Because steroids have such a profound effect on the hormones in your body, they have a far more drastic and fast development of man boobs than natural hormonal problems. 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.

Male breast development is quite a common side effect of steroid use. Breast will develop because of the way that steroids disrupt the balance of estrogen and testosterone in the body. Steroids stop the body’s natural testosterone production and if a user doesn’t put testosterone back into the body after a cycle of steroids then estrogen will be rampant in the body and feminine hips and breasts will develop. Not exactly the look steroids users would be going for, but a result of steroids nonetheless.

After ceasing steroid use it can still take quite a while for the body to start its testosterone production and in many cases even after hormones are back to normal the breast do budge. Man boobs from steroids are famous for being harder to get rid of than man boobs from other causes.

There is one very easy solution, and that is to stay right away from steroids, and if you think about the other associated risk like shrunken testicles, looking like a stocking stuffed with tennis balls and our lovely flabby boobs there are plenty of good reasons to do so. For those who insist on taking steroids there are drugs available to block estrogen levels in the body and they can help stop man boobs forming. These are often used by body builders, however these drugs have not been fully studied, so there may well be other side effects of these blockers which will cause another unsightly syndrome.

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. If your man boobs are steroid induced still don’t rush into surgery that may not even cure the problem - it may take a bit more time but natural remedies can still cure your man boobs.

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