Men get abnormalities of the nipple and areola too!

Aurora is now part of The Private Clinic, a nationwide group of clinics with over 35 years of experience specialising in Cosmetic Surgery and Skin and a Trust Pilot 5 star rating. For comprehensive information on Areola and Nipple procedures click here

The Private Clinic has clinics located in Birmingham, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Glasgow, London Harley Street, Leeds, Manchester and Northampton.

What abnormalities of the nipple and areola occur in men?

1. Men can get prominent nipples. They stick out a little bit too much. This can embarrass men when wearing tight-fitting t-shirts because their nipples show through.
2. The prominence of the areola. This is a common complaint amongst men visiting cosmetic surgeons. They are concerned about the doming of the areola (the coloured area around the nipple) so that the breast tissue and the nipples can be a little bit too prominent and again show through clothing. This is actually caused by tissue underneath the breast tissue and can be due to a condition known as gynecomastia.

Gynecomastia

This is really just enlargement of male breast tissue. Men have breast tissue just like women (although there is a bit of a stigma about admitting this fact!) and in fact, men can even get breast cancer, although it’s very rare. This breast tissue can be abnormal and it can also be aesthetically too large.

Cosmetic Surgery for male breast problems

• Reducing the prominence of the male nipple is a relatively simple cosmetic surgery procedure, making it almost flat with the areola. This treatment can usually be performed under local anaesthetic.
• Reducing the puffiness of the areola? Well, it really depends on the degree of puffiness that you have and how big that underlying bit of breast tissue is. If it is quite a reasonable size area, we will need to remove it surgically. It won’t be able to be removed by liposuction. You can use liposuction to treat gynecomastia, but liposuction only removes the fatty element of the breast tissue not the glandular element of the breast tissue. There are a number of different surgical techniques for puffy areolas on men. The most common is known as Webster’s procedure (named after the surgeon who invented it). In that procedure, your surgeon will make a half-moon shaped incision underneath your nipple just at the junction of the areola and the skin. Through that incision, the breast tissue can be accessed to remove that little bit of extra breast gland tissue underneath the nipple which is causing the prominence. Wider areas of breast tissue can also be removed and liposuction performed to actually remove the fatty tissue around the breast to reduce the overall gynecomastia too.

So, in essence, if you feel you have got puffy areolas, it’s probably not actually just the areolas that are the problem. It’s the tissue underneath which is pushing that areola forward.

Removing that can be done under local anaesthetic or with mild sedation or a general anaesthetic. We’ll talk to you about the options and whether we recommend one is better for you than the other.

For more information about male breast surgery options or to discuss your male breast issues confidentially with our team, call today on 0333 920 2471 or use our online contact form.