Breast Cancer in man/ Gynecomastia

Dear Readers,

I am a male aged 22 and about 1 year ago I felt a lumb in one of my breasts. I went to my regular physician and I got redirected to one of the larger clinics to get a mammogram. The results of the mammogram where inconclusive so they scheduled me up for an echo. The person that did the Echo told me at that time there was not much irregularity and that it seams it was just a set of glands that somehow proliferated. In males this is called Gynecomastia.

I am however at this point still very uncertain about the cause, and especially the causal agent of just one of my breasts getting larger (Yes I am slightly overweight and I am trying to lose weight, though Gynecomastia usually is on both sides, though I have it on one side).

Since I am a veterinarian student and I also see many of the horrible diseases animals can get I went to the former oncologist of our university in the Netherlands, and I asked there for advice. He was a little stunned they didn't took a biopt or tried to find the cause of it (like an elevated plasma estrogen or progesterone level).

Since that conversation I've been paying a little bit more attention to signs of male breast cancer and I saw that the breast that is enlarged has a nipple going inwards into the tissue, while the other one is outwards. Also the tissue felt more like a longer mass than it was before and it is not round any more. I sense the enlargement that points towards my left arm (the left breast is the one that is enlarged) is also sensible to touch.

When this all happened at first I asked my regular physician if they could remove it, but they would only do it if I lost weight (I am 85 kg and should be around 70-75). However I feel very embarrassed to take my shirt of in public, especially since it is located on one side.

So could anyone please tell me if I should go to my physician and ask her for a biopt of the tissue, or perhaps a second round of X-ray and Echo?

Any advice would be very welcome,
Yours truly,

Mauranius

[japdip]

Gynecomastia is the enlargement of the male breast and can be either bilateral or unilateral. This condition is usually due to a benign cause. As a rule no treatment is required although surgical removal of the excess tissue is sometimes advised. The inversion of the nipple may be due to the enlargement of the surrounding tissue OR to the lump that you mentioned earlier. If you are becoming very concerned then I would advise you to see a Breast Specialist and take with you all the records that are related to this particular problem.    Regards ....