I came across the following site and thought it might be worth bringing to everyone’s attention, not only because the site provides some good overview and advice on a condition that has implications for both genders, but because it pertains to a problem that could be affecting your love life and which may not need to have as great of an impact as it currently does.
This site discusses the conditions known as vaginismus and dyspareunia, which (by my rough and imperfect definition) refer to a woman not being able to experience intercourse (vaginal penetration) without suffering pain. In some cases, the condition can be so severe that penetration isn’t even possible, due to a wide possibility of factors including involuntary muscle spasms.
In essence, this condition would obviously have severe implications for women and their love lives, but it would also have significant effects on their partners and their relationships as a whole.
So if this problem is affecting you or someone you care about, and it may very well be the kind of problem that you or they are hesitant to talk about, have look into it and consider some of the treatments out there. Depending on the underlying cause, the condition may be curable. And in almost all cases, you should be able to improve your situation to some degree.
I guess it says enough about the impact the topic of this article could have on a man, that while contemplating pictures to include in the article, I opted not to use any because I felt like they would either be (a) nudity or (b) just a little gross. And I guess that sums it up for any sufferer of a condition known as gynecomastia. This is a latin word that essentially means female breasts…on men.
Now I’m not talking about the chubby dude who has a little bit of saggage up top. That guy also has a little bit of saggage here, there and everywhere. And if he loses the weight, well things are probably going to just get lifted right back to where they belong (provided that his skin hasn’t been stretched so excessively that it can no longer conform to a smaller frame).
In cases of gynecomastia, dudes actually develop full out breast tissue. The same stuff that girls have. Not just fat but actual mammary gland tissue that takes on a female breast shape which is entirely different from what happens when you just gain a little extra weight. Make no mistake, these are real breasts and this condition can have real psychological scars for men, regardless of the age at which they are stricken.
I suppose a comparable situation for girls might be profoundly excessive facial or body hair. The essence is simply that their body is doing its utmost to undermine their confidence and present them as vastly removed from the physical ideal for their sex. And the bad news for men is that if you have actual breast tissue, the only solution if you want to do something about it is surgery, where a doctor goes in and actually cuts the gland tissue out, which is no small operation. The worse news? Insurance will probably not cover it.
There’s a site online, developed by a former sufferer of gynecomastia, who had this operation to remove tissue from a fairly significant pair of breasts. The site is called Gynecomastia.org and has quite a community of current and former sufferers of this condition. A quick glimpse through the pages will quickly illustrate the abrasive psychological impact that is being felt by these men.
It’s a little bit cheeseball, but the following video is a short documentary put together by a fellow in Toronto who underwent the same operation in the hopes of beginning a second life with a “normal” body. Cheesy or not, it does also illustrate that the dude has some guts to put himself and his condition out there like that.
Gynecomastia seems to pop up most commonly during puberty (following which it usually resolves itself), in late middle age as testosterone levels drop, or following the use of certain medications. It is also quite common in the bodybuilding world, where use of anabolic steroids throws off the natural hormone balance and lets the female hormones briefly dominate and begin a process essentially equivalent to female puberty. So a lesson for all the 98-pound weaklings thinking about a quick fix to get the chicks: Do your research before you start injecting yourself with horse steroids. You’ll just end up with cow udders.
Some dudes even come to love their man-boobs and find them erotic, presumably ending up with partners who feel the same way. These are definitely some self-secure men that could probably give everyone a lesson on staying grounded and keeping things in perspective. For the remaining 99.5% of men, the link below has some information on the condition and a petition to get the correction surgery covered by insurance carriers. At the very least, Allstate could dish out a few bucks for the Manziere.
It appears that your Dad’s vasectomy just isn’t the way things are done anymore. Pretty much every family sitcom takes an episode to deal with the fears and freak-outs that an aging man will experience as he is inevitably drawn to his doctor’s office to have his ballsack cut open and the tubes inside snipped apart and clamped shut. Ouch…
Well, for what it’s worth, it appears that there have been some advances in the field, with a focus on reducing pain and post-operative complications. Over the last twenty years, a more advanced vasectomy technique has been introduced to North America by some proactive doctors who studied its origins in Asia. The gist of the operation remains the same, but anesthesia can now be applied without requiring a needle, and the vas deferens (the tube that is cut to prevent sperm flow) can now be accessed through a small puncture in the scrotal skin, no longer requiring the incisions of old.
At the very least, you can probably dial down the intensity of your operating room nightmares and cold sweats as vasectomy day approaches. With all the advances in organ transplantation and neurosurgery over the last few decades, it appears that the family jewels have not been forgotten by science and that advances have been made in that area as well.
TRENDS FOR THE FUTURE?
With the increased convenience and reduced pain and complications now involved with vasectomy, I wonder if it is only a matter of time before tubal ligations (women getting their “tubes tied”) eventually become obsolete. The female operation is considered a significantly more major surgery, with a greater likelihood of complications and, in the event of failure, the possibility of a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy.
Time will tell. But in due time, I expect tubal ligations to give way to vasectomies based on the balance of convenience and safety between the sexes.
ONE MAN’S APPROACH
I also came across the interesting account of one man (now a writer) who had a vasectomy at the age of twenty. He is now in his fifties, still childless, and claims that his youthful vasectomy was the best decision he ever made, sparing him from stress in the event of a girlfriend’s late period or the possibility of becoming a father by accident, by deceit, or I guess, by any means whatsoever.
I suppose the only downside would be that if he ever decided that he did want children, say at the wise old age of 35 or so, then he would have permanently sterilized himself. Yes, vasectomies are reversible but after fifteen years, a reversal operation would be quite unlikely to result in the flow of sperm that could fertilize an egg.
I am a longtime fitness advocate and a veteran of many grueling battles in the gym.
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