Patient of the Week

[dcopeland]

This patient is a 32 year old bodybuilder from Berkeley, New Jersey.
This weeks patient is an excellence example of a mild case of gynecomastia in a bodybuilder. The preoperative photos show only a slight puffy protruding appearance of the areola. Unfortunately, bodybuilders (with mild grade I), can often be dismissed by physicians. Physicians who lack experiance with bobuilding patients, not excluding plastic surgeons, may take the stance that no action is necisassry, or classify the patient as having a form of BID (body image dissorder). To avoid having your time wasted, or being missclasified, bodybuilding athletes should seek plastic surgeons with significant experiance in bodybuilng patients.

This grade I case is present bilateral (both sides), nearly symetric (same size distrotion present under each NAC {nipple - areola complex }). It is rare that each distrotion is perfecly symetrical.

Communicate your concerns with your surgeon. Make sure that your aestetic priorities are shared and understoond by your surgeon. This patients concerns were minimizing scaring, reducing the protrusion(s) present, and reducing the size of his nipples. The patients concerns were adressed, and postoperative photos were taken at 1 years time.