The number of men interested in undergoing cosmetic surgery to correct unsatisfying aspects of their bodies is ever growing. Because all of our surgical and non-surgical treatments are tailored to a patient’s cosmetic needs and objectives, men can choose to undergo many of the same procedures that are available to women.

People tend to mention women when they talk about cosmetic surgery, but certainly, we’re seeing a far greater proportion of men coming for cosmetic surgery. What procedures do men have? Well, they have all the same procedures as females, usually. They may come for liposuction. They may come for abdominoplasty, especially with massive weight loss patients, they may come for facelifts or neck lifts, more commonly. They may have their eyelids which are starting to affect their fields of vision. Men will come for fillers and injectables just to try for that maintenance and prevention of stigmata of aging. So, we see them, basically, for all the same procedures we would see a female for. The one unique procedure, of course, we see for males commonly for is gynaecomastia or male breasts. It is a condition which can be quite debilitating for a male who is not happy to take his shirt off at a beach, is not happy to take his shirt off at a football change room. Just embarrassed that he will be teased by his mates at golf or sport, etc., or even his kids around the swimming pool. So, we certainly see a large number of patients with gynaecomastia. I think males being males don’t like to talk too much about these things. It’s not the sort of thing you go and tell your mate that you had your man boobs removed and stuff. I think a lot of patients would be shocked at how common it is and how many we actually do. With gynaecomastia there’s really two ways of treating it to some respect. The traditional way was with an incision around the edge of the areola, and you physically remove the tissue. That usually requires a drain and a period of recovery. The technique I use more commonly now which has been a great innovation, I think, in my practice is a combination called liposuction and avulsion of the gland. With that I’m able to make incisions remote from the nipple, so that down on the chest they are asymmetrical. So, they look just like mole excisions. You know, so, someone asks, “What were those scars?”. The answer is “Oh, there was a couple of moles had removed.” We liposuction the volume out of the breasts, and then we are able to put some forceps tubes and physically avulse or remove the glandular tissue from under the breast. The correction of gynaecomastia is a quick operation in many respects. It is quick recovery. It’s usually almost exclusively done as day surgery. Most patients will be back to work even with a physical job in about a week. It’s considered a medical procedure. So, there are Medicare item numbers associated with it, and certainly, if you are in a health fund, then a lot of the costs will be covered as part of that medical procedure. But, it is an operation that I think is very good. It can change lifestyles, again from people who, you know, avoid going to the beach to people who are happy to go to the beach. Even get down to the situation where people can wear normal business shirts and not feel embarrassed and things, so it can make a very big, significant difference to people.