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PLASTIC SURGERY NEWS, SURGERY NEWS, COSMETIC SURGERY NEWS Dcember 2004 NEWS  |
Are all men simply breastmen?
Recent photos circulating the Internet and vernacular tabloids include those of actor Bae Yong-joon and pop-star Rain, shirtless and showing off guns and bazookas that most fans didn't know they had. These photos have left some fans breathless yet puzzled. After all, the Grand Canyon wasn't made in a day.
"I can understand Rain having such a body because he's a dancer. But how did Bae Yong-joon get like that?" wrote one blogger on a celebrity chat site.
Bae, who rose to stardom playing a scarf-clad softy in the popular television drama "Winter Sonata," turned into a chiseled behemoth through, what he claims, was six months of intensive training.
Along with recent statistics, these photos seem to buttress the notion that more and more men are getting plastic surgery done not just on their faces, but on their bodies as well.
Recent articles written in the vernacular dailies claimed that about half of all procedures performed on men are these so-called chest surgeries, piquing the interest of those less-endowed men wanting a shorter path to chiseled pects and six-pack abs than trodding through endless hours of push-ups and sit-ups.
Though the numbers are correct, the public at large has little idea what chest surgery is all about, explained Dr. Sim Hyung-bo, a plastic surgeon and director of Njelim Body Care Center, a prominent Seoul clinic that specializes in breast augmentation and reduction surgeries for both men and women (their Web site is at www.breast.co.kr).
Chest surgeries are, by and large, corrective procedures to treat a little known medical condition among men called gynecomastia.
"Sufferers of gynecomastia are characterized by abnormally large, woman-like breasts. Chest surgeries are basically breast reduction surgeries for men," said Sim.
Gynecomastia, which roughly means "women-like breasts" in Greek, is caused by an hormonal imbalance that causes the glandular tissues in the man's chest area to become larger than normal.
According to an Internet forum devoted to the little-known disease (www.gynecomastia.org), an estimated 40 to 60 percent of men are afflicted with gynecomastia in some mild and unnoticeable form, often as a result of puberty. But many men's symptoms are such that their bodies become a source of deep shame and confusion.
"People with gynecomastia are candidates for deep depression. They feel insecure and inferior," said Sim. "In this country, men are particularly sensitive and feel anxious about their bodies because of what they have to endure in the military."
Sim said that chest surgery, which has been available in Korea for the past 10 years, is not about vanity but about helping many cope with a disease that is relatively unknown and seldom talked about.
Chest surgery is a simple, out-patient procedure that takes only an hour with a three-day recovery period. It costs around 3 million won.
Though a majority of Sim's clients suffer from gynecomastia in some form or another, an increasing number of healthy men are coming for chest surgery consultations, thinking that these procedures make men's chests bigger not smaller.
Sim offers those looking for a leaner, meaner look a combination of standard procedures such as liposuction to increase definition.
"What I can say is to go exercise and work out. In the end, that is all that really matters."
But for the proud, lazy few, Sim said that male chest implants, using silicone or saline-based implants similar to those used in women, will be available for Korean men in five to six years. These implants are used mostly to correct deformities, but a small clientele in the United States and Europe use them to lend their chests greater heft and definition.
So, did Bae Yong-joon and Rain get chest surgery or not? Dr. Sim doesn't think so.
"They mostly likely did it the natural way."
(warrenlee@heraldm.com)
By Warren Lee
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/12/27/200412270010.asp
