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Do I have a hormone imbalance?

I've had man boobs for years now. I'm not overweight at all. I'm a little over 6 ft and about 180 lbs. I looked it up and it's supposed to go away after a while, but it's still there. I'm over 17 and I've had this problem since like the 6th grade. It's obviously not going away. I tried working out, but that only really built muscle and didn't do anything at all. Should I get my hormones tested or do I not have to worry? Is it too late in puberty for these changes to fix themselves? My penis also seems as if it's not normal size and I experience what I believe to be hot flashes pretty regularly. I've shown most stages of puberty, but these problems are still there. Can someone help determine the problem?
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Avatar universal
You're describing something that sounds like "Gynecomastia." You might have excessive estrogen levels. It doesn't necessarily mean low testosterone, as testosterone can "aromatize" into estrogen. The first thing you should do is avoid junk food, especially the fried variety. The oil that it's cooked in is a mess, probably estrogenic. Next, if someone's concerned about estrogenic activity, a water filter that can remove "endocrine disruptors" is a pretty good idea. Here's some good ones: https://whatwaterfilter.com/the-best-water-filter-to-remove-xenoestrogens/ There's unfortunately quite a few chemicals, from pesticides to prescription drugs that get into the water supply. It's bad enough that testosterone levels have dropped quite a bit over the decades and I expect that it has something to do with the unnatural chemicals polluting the water, food, and the rest of the environment. There's a book about it called, I believe "Our Stolen Future."
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Avatar universal
Yes,  I know the answer.   You eat cheese, animal products that are loaded with hormones and you eat animals.  The milk of another species , cattle, is loaded with hormones meant for her baby and cheese is 9 times more concentrated with it, casino, so you are dousing your self in female bovine hormones.  Our bodies never were meant to consume milk or flesh from another species.  Stop it and your cheese **** will disappear in time .  Read. Near Barnard, Michael Greger, Colin Campbell, Micheal Klapper, *  How to break the cheese addiction. *
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I think you're confusing inability to digest dairy with sexual hormones.  You are right, humans were only intended by nature to consume mother's milk and that only until weaning, but the main problem with it isn't that it causes hormonal problems.  Plant foods are actually more likely to cause hormonal problems than animal food, which is quite dead by the time we eat it whereas plant food has not nutritional value unless we eat it while it still has life force in it.  Some forms of soy are highly estrogenic.  Red clover is highly estrogenic.  I could go on, but the list of plants that might have an effect on our hormones is so long it would take too long.  The problem with dairy is that except for two ethnic groups, one in Scandinavia somewhere and one in India, humans lack the enzyme necessary to digest dairy.  If your argument were true, mother's milk, coming from a female, would cause a male human to have hormonal problems, no?  And if you are going to force feed dairy, cheese because it's cultured is actually much easier to handle than milk, which is not.  Not sure where you got this from, but eating animals is what made humans human.  Our brain only developed when we started eating animals and got the high quality amino acids that make up protein than fuel the neurotransmitters that make up our cerebrum's functionality.  Life is messy, but it is what it is.  Peace.
20620809 tn?1504362969
As you say you are over 17, I think it never hurts to get hormones tested.  Talk to your primary care doctor about it.  I think anniebrooke gave some good advice
Helpful - 0
134578 tn?1693250592
If you're 17, your body might still be processing all the changes of puberty, and have yet to settle down completely. Evidently man boobs (including soreness) are an issue then, and can be again at age 50 or so. If they stay somewhat larger than other guys,' you could certainly see a doc and get checked. (Test your thyroid, too.)

In case you haven't run across it, here's a good article from the Mayo Clinic:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gynecomastia/symptoms-causes/syc-20351793

It might also not be increases in estrogen but instead decreases in testosterone that can cause this problem. Some meds (including some anti-anxiety medications) can cause the problem as well. Check out the article, there's too much info to paraphrase here.
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Avatar universal
The fact you seemed to easily put on muscle indicates your testosterone is there.  There is no normal penis size, so that's a non-issue.  The question there is, does it work, not how big it is.  We come in all sizes and shapes and maybe this is just yours.  But if you're truly concerned, see your doctor and get a blood test for sexual hormones.  The thing is, if you were high in estrogen and low in testosterone, I think you'd notice other things as well, such as your voice's depth and if you have body hair (although some of us are pretty hairless, including me).  There is something that can cause excess estrogen in children and give them female features, and that's exposure to certain pollutants, particularly petroleum pollution.  Oil is highly estrogenic.  But again, only a test would tell you that, as it doesn't seem behavior or other factors are showing it.  There have been clusters of boys who have gotten female breasts and the like from living near petroleum pollution, so that's a thing.  But for a third time, there are blood tests that can tell you if this is just the shape nature intended you to have or is related to levels of sexual hormones.  
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1 Comments
I should add, if you've ever seen a bodybuilder, they've often got some pretty good sized breasts.
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