Gynecomastia is the development of breast tissues and glands in males. The prime symptom of normal chest vs gynecomastia is the development of women-like breasts. It results from hormonal imbalance and is usually visible in adolescence but clears up by itself. However, it is possible to experience gynecomastia at a later age too. The primary cause of gynecomastia is an imbalance of hormones. It can also occur as a side effect of some medication being consumed.
The difference between chest fat and gynecomastia is that the latter is caused due to development of epithelial tissues in the pectoral region. In obesity, fat accumulation can occur in different body parts, including the chest. Therefore, one can try out diets and exercises to observe how the body performs under such conditions to identify the difference between chest fat and gynecomastia. Hence to know whether you have gynaecomastia vs chest fat, you can visit a doctor who would be able to give the correct diagnosis. Gynecomastia usually requires surgery to restore a normal chest.
In case you are not sure whether you have gynecomastia or chest fat, read on to get a clear idea of chest fat and gynecomastia difference.
Symptoms of gynaecomastia vs chest fat
- Pain: If you are experiencing slight discomfort, it can be gynecomastia. Gynecomastia is associated with mild pain and causes tenderness in the area. You would feel the chest area be swollen and experience pain while touching. Thus, in gynecomastia vs fat, pain is felt in the former, while none of these is evident in the case of chest fat.
Still, chest fat can cause pain under some conditions unrelated to chest fat. Hence, this makes it more important to understand the difference between chest fat vs gynaecomastia.
- Sensation on touch: While figuring out chest fat and gynecomastia difference, you would feel that chest fat feels like fat deposited in any other part of the body such as arms, legs, thighs, etc. they feel soft on touching, whereas gynecomastia is stiff and rigid.
Gynecomastia might feel as hard and rubber-like on touching. It feels like a solid lump beneath the skin, which is not the same in the case of chest fat.
- Appearance: There is a visible difference between chest fat vs gynaecomastia. Chest fat has a more saggy droop-down appearance without any shape. However, gynecomastia is firm and tends to have a round firm shape. It resembles the women’s breasts. In cases of lower amounts of tissues, the nipple-areolar appears to be projecting out more than the rest of the area.
- Responses to diet and physical activity: One of the significant differences between chest fat vs gynaecomastia is evident in how the body reacts to diets and workouts. While each body is unique, with different percentages of fat distributed in other areas, after regular exercise, you should be able to see at least a slight reduction of fat in the pectoral area with time. If yes, it is chest fat, then.
Sometimes, due to genetic characteristics, fat can accumulate in areas that do not respond to diets. However, both workout and diet can together combat chest fat. Exercises such as chest flies and bench press targeting the chest muscles can help tone the area.
However, if you see little to zero changes in the chest area even after a good weight loss of the overall body, it is a sign that you might have gynecomastia. It is because body fat tends to burn during workouts on a normal chest vs gynecomastia does not show any results.
Thus, now after having a thorough knowledge of chest fat and gynecomastia differences and evaluation, you know whether you have gynecomastia or not. Even though gynecomastia usually clears up on its own, a surgical operation is required in some cases. The surgery can be performed under general anaesthesia or intravenous sedation.
Liposuction is also paired up with it to give a proper shape to the breast. For liposuction, the surgeon would make a small incision in the area and insert a cannula. Fat is suctioned out from the body. The glandular tissue can also be removed from the same incision. For severe cases, both excess skin and glandular tissue are removed. It is used when the patient wants to change the position of the nipples or areola to get the desired contour. In many cases, eliminating glandular tissues may result in sagging skin. Skin tightening therapies can be used in such cases.
Before the surgery, the doctor would explain all the instructions on how to take care of the chest after the surgery. Usually, two weeks are required to recover completely.
It is pretty challenging to know the differences between gynaecomastia vs chest fat. Yet there are specific vital symptoms which show a clear distinction between gynecomastia vs fat. Visit a doctor to get a clear idea of gynecomastia vs fat, as they are the best to handle the case. You can get in touch with our doctors at ALCS India, who would provide all the information on gynecomastia vs fat.
