Britain
— A SHARP rise in the number of men requesting
breast- reduction operations is being blamed by surgeons
on the effects of excess female hormones in tap water and
food.
Clinics are reporting a
doubling in the number of operations being carried out
over just one year. According to surgeons, the male
breasts examined are similar in structure to those of
women and are not simply fat deposits caused by
overeating.
They believe the
condition, called gynecomastia, is caused by traces of
the female contraceptive pill in tap water and hormones
used to promote the growth of farm animals.
Yannis Alexandrides, a
surgeon at the Kosmeticos <http://www.kosmeticos.com/>
clinic in Harley Street, central London, carried out one
male breast reduction a month four years ago but is now
doing one a week.
“Hormones contained
in the food we eat, particularly fast food, may be one of
the reasons why we are seeing this increase,” said
Alexandrides.
Alan Kingdon, a cosmetic
surgeon and medical director of the Cosmetic Surgery
clinic in London, has witnessed a similar increase in
demand. He has studied the material removed from
men’s breasts and has found mammary gland tissue
usually found only in women.
“We are seeing a
group of male patients who have glandular tissue growing
in their breasts that are feminine in appearance,”
he said. “This group of patients appears to be on
the increase.
“I can only
speculate as to the causes, but I would suspect that the
use of oestrogen in the food chain is a factor.”
Professor Kefah Mokbel, a
consultant breast and endocrine surgeon at London’s
St George’s and Princess Grace hospitals, said he
was now treating about 150 men a year for breast
reduction.
A survey carried out by
the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic
Surgeons <http://www.baaps.org.uk/>
found that in 2003 its members carried out 22 male breast
reductions which in 2004 rose to 53.
Female hormones in the
environment have also been blamed for falling sperm
counts among British men. Samples taken from 7,500 men
attending the Aberdeen Fertility Centre
<http://www.aberdeenfertility.org.uk/>
between 1989 and 2002 show that sperm concentrations fell
by almost a third.
