Denmark: According
to a study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology
& Metabolism, idiopathic Gynecomastia is a clinical symptom of underlying disease in
men. It predicts the risk of future disease; hence, more awareness is required
to identify its cause in males.
Gynecomastia
affects 32%-65% of men and is likely to increase due to obesity. None of the
studies has been associated it with the risk of disease in males. There needs to
be more data on the relationship between Gynecomastia and general health in
males.
Researchers
assessed health before and after the diagnosis of Gynecomastia.
The study summary
includes the following:
- Among 140,574 males, 23,429 had incident
gynecomastia, and 117,145 were without Gynecomastia. - Males with a history of Gynecomastia were
stratified idiopathic or with a known pre-existing risk factor. - 69.4 % of males had idiopathic Gynecomastia.
These had a statistically significant higher risk of future disease across
all included disease chapters having an HR range of 1.19 to 1.89. - The endocrine diseases having HR 1.89 had the
highest disease risk. The endocrine gland disorders, obesity and other conditions had HR of 7.27, 2.33 and 1.03 to 1.54 respectively. - The highest sub-chapter disease risk for
disorders of endocrine glands had an OR of 7.27. - There was an increased risk of comorbidities
before a diagnosis of idiopathic Gynecomastia. The OR for
musculoskeletal/connective tissue and circulatory diseases was 1.51 and
1.36, respectively. - Prior comorbidities with Gynecomastia and a
known risk factor for endocrine disorders, circulatory and Psychiatric
disorders had OR 4.04, 3.48 and 4.18
To conclude,
idiopathic Gynecomastia is a symptom of disease in males. It represents the
future disease risk of an individual, so it is essential to determine the cause
of it, and there should be more awareness among healthcare providers in this
context.
The study’s
limitations were associations cannot prove causation, Possible
misclassifications, pseudo-gynecomastia, etc.
Further reading:
Uldbjerg CS, Lim
YH, Bräuner EV, Juul A. Increased Morbidity in Males Diagnosed with
Gynecomastia: A nationwide register-based cohort study. J Clin Endocrinol
Metab. 2023 Jan 31:dgad048. doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgad048.