A Newport Beach plastic surgeon is boasting about his ability to reduce man boobs. (Note to surgeon: Can you sneak Clockwork in before 10?) But any old cutter can take care of man boobs these days. Dr. Joseph T. Cruise is carving out a niche with the barely 18 man-boobed crowd.
]
Exhibit one is Luke Hendrickson, an 18-year-old who suffered from gynecomastia–male breast
enlargement–since he was 10. He grew up a few blocks from the beach but dreaded the summer season and never participated in shirtless activities.
“Even though I lived
close to the beach, I never wanted to go. . . . I always looked forward to
when it was cold so that I could hide under a jacket,” Hendrickson says in a release issued by the good doctor. “I never felt confident
or comfortable with myself and ended up just letting myself go. I
thought I was just stuck with having the enlarged breasts, I was
unaware there was a solution and felt totally powerless.”
At
the time of his surgery, Hendrickson was 6 feet 4 and 290 lbs., attributing the mass he amassed as a teen with the emotional and
physical effects of having gynecomastia.
“The
effects of having gynecomastia can be emotionally devastating leaving
males to feel insecure, depressed and isolated,” according to Cruise. “Unfortunately, these
negative effects can have a ripple effect onto other parts of one's
life resulting in a desperate search for a solution.”
The results of having male breast reduction surgery inspired the young man to permanently change his lifestyle habits and lose more than 80 pounds, according to Cruise.
Hendrickson's before and after boobage photos follow:
While contemplating what happened to Luke's holy cross, check out Cruise's warning signs for parents of teenage boys to look out for:
* Withdrawing from daily activities;
* Skipping family trips to the beach;
* Gaining weight.
If junior displays any of those, he, too, according to Cruise, may be suffering from the shame of man boobs. On the bright side, he could also practice on himself to figure out the best way to unhook co-eds' bras. Why, oh why, must so many clasp at the back?
Back to Hendrickson,
he's now 20 and fully committed to a healthier lifestyle.
“Due to the outcome of the
surgery, I have changed the way I eat and exercise,” he says. “It has changed the
way I live and how I feel about myself. I can now stand tall with
confidence and certainty.”
Cruise says a segment on the young man's story and
gynecomastia airs on American Health Front at 7 p.m. Saturday on KTTV/Fox 11.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.