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. Ancient Greek aside, it is commonly known 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. Although man boobs in adolescent males usually disappear after a while, it is not at all uncommon for them to sprout small breasts of have lumps under their nipple for a couple of years. Overweight boys are more susceptible but even active fit youngsters can experience breast development. Other than the social stigma that boys with man boobs may feel there are no known health risks for man boobs at adolescence. Boys that have man boobs will often isolate themselves from their peer group and avoid social situations that involve taking off their shirt like sports of beach activities.

Man boobs can also be the result of a side effect from prescription medications, or from drug and alcohol abuse (marijuana, methamphetamines and beer are big ones) as well as diseases that can have man boobs as symptoms like certain cancers and 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 steroid use is a major and increasing cause 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.

Male breast development is quite a common side effect of steroid use. Generally the cause is from the steroids putting the testosterone and estrogen balance in the body all out of whack. 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. Now that’s not exactly the image that someone taking steroids would want to achieve.

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.

The ideal solution would of course be to not use steroids at all, and indeed if the other risk like shrunken testicles are taken into consideration, they should be avoided like the plague. Those who are determined to use steroids can try and stop breast development by taking estrogen blockers. 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. If you have steroid induce gynecomastia it may take a bit more time, however you should try every natural remedy prior to surgery, as it can be a costly as risky procedure that may or may not cure the problem.

If you enjoyed the article on How To Lose Man Boobs have a peek at my site Guide To Getting Rid Of Man Boobs for lots of invaluable information for you!