Is There A Worrying Link Between Body Dysmorphia And Gynecomastia In Young Men?

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Traditionally, women have always outnumbered men when it came to anxiety disorders related to their appearance. Anorexia is actually the mental disorder responsible for the most deaths. You’ve probably noticed things have started to change and more young men are becoming victims too. Let’s look at what has caused this sudden shift towards an increase in mental problems.

Where Things Started to Go Wrong

Firstly, it’s important to point out guys are primarily suffering from body dysmorphia. They suffer emotionally because they think there is something slightly abnormal about their body.

We have always seen examples of this problem in real life. Bodybuilders would take dangerous amounts of drugs because they wanted to look like the muscular action figures they played with growing up. Still, it certainly wasn’t too common.

Now social media has burst onto the scene and everyone is living out their life on a small screen. They want to look perfect before they post anything on Instagram. It doesn’t help when they see genetically-blessed people with millions of followers living the dream.

Why Gynecomastia Is Ruining Their Lives

Gynecomastia is something a lot of bodybuilders deal with if they’re shooting lots of steroids. When their testosterone is so high some of it converts to estrogen, which we all think of as the female hormone. It means they grow a lot of breast tissue underneath their nipples.

Unfortunately, you don’t have to take any steroids to grow breast tissue. Some guys are born with it in their genetics, and it will eventually present itself as they grow up. It’s impossible to feel good about yourself if you do have gynecomastia, because if you’re carrying extra body fat it can look like you have female breasts.

Surgery Isn’t the Only Solution

People will tell you the only true way to get rid of gynecomastia is by going under the knife. In theory, they’re sadly true. It’s simply impossible to completely remove the unwanted breast tissue without going inside and taking it out.

On the plus side, there happens to be a lot more things those with body dysmorphia can do to ease their condition. We’re only talking about physical appearance today, so if you do have the illness you must speak to a therapist who will deal with things concerning the mind.

Fix Your Diet Before You Do Anything

Now we’re not going to eliminate all of the unwanted breast tissue with a great diet, but it can definitely make the condition a hundred times better. It can actually be hard to notice someone has gynecomastia when they lose weight depending on how bad it is.

If you only had a touch of gynecomastia the first thing would be to drop into a small calorie deficit. There are ways you should work out how many calories to eat per day without going to extremes. The last thing you need is to end up with stretch marks too.

Start to Exercise Regularly Too

Everyone who has noticeable ‘man boobs’ is going to head straight for the bench press, and if that is you I’d like to warn you of something first.

Please take it easy when you’re working your chest. Yeah, it will certainly mask the gynecomastia if you build a bigger chest, but if it’s the only thing you focus on it’s going to lead to imbalances.

It’s crucial to make sure you work your entire body, so that means no gym bro beach muscle workouts. It’s especially important to hit your back if you don’t want your shoulders to hunch forwards. You’ll also need to train your legs if you don’t want to look like a chicken.

It’s Going to Make You Feel Better

Will a combination of diet and exercise cure you of body dysmorphia triggered by gynecomastia? Of course, it’s possible. It’s also possible even surgery won’t do much with therapy being the only answer.

But it’s going to make you feel better, because you’ll suddenly stop feeling as self-conscious when it doesn’t look like you have breasts.

In a perfect world, we could eliminate mental disorders by waving a magic wand. If you’ve learned anything today it’s how to look better without surgery, so hopefully going under the knife and visiting a therapist might be the last resort.

 

Resources:

https://www.gynecomastia.org/medical-conditions/body-dysmorphic-disorder
http://www.fixmanboobs.com.au/what-causes-man-boobs/
http://www.iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

Andy Green
Andy Green is an experienced writer and a student of Nutritional Medicine. He occasionally writes for health and wellness websites. Some of his work has been published on Cosmos Clinic blog.