With the music of rapper Jay-Z blaring in the background, Marwan Khalifeh, a Washington-area cosmetic surgeon, aggressively dove a strawlike metallic probe back and forth throughout the breasts of a patient lying on an operating table, as though he had been playing with a cello.

The aim was to decrease the size of the individual's breasts, an increasingly common process for women who opt to modify their way of life or tackle a health condition. And Khalifeh's surgical space on the 17th floor of a medical arts building from Friendship Heights is arrayed with advanced gear, such as a laser machine known as the Smartlipo MPX which emulsifies undesirable fat.

But in this circumstance, Khalifeh was utilizing his surgical abilities to shrink the breasts of a 32-year-old guy who has endured the indignities of having a female shape nearly all of his lifetime.

David, a government contracting adviser and self-described physical exercise zealot, had spent years attempting to conceal the magnitude of his breasts with loosefitting or dark-colored tops and by averting shores or locker rooms where he may need to empty his torso. He whined his outsized breasts a small B cup of breast tissue had defeated his bodybuilding attempts and made it more difficult to get rid of weight.

David (who consented to be interviewed for this article about the condition that his last name be withheld to safeguard his privacy) says he had been mentally scarred growing up in Texas when friends made fun of his breasts.

Marwan Khalifeh plays a breast-reduction process on a male individual. Over 27,000 American guys chosen with this particular treatment in 2016.

The scientific term for enlarged male breasts is gynecomastia, by the Greek for"womanlike breasts." Although you do not hear much about this particular condition, specialists say it's fairly common and might affect as much as 50 to 70% of guys to varying levels throughout their lifetimes.

The abnormality typically is the result of a hormonal imbalance found in puberty, but in addition it may be triggered by specific prescription medications or excessive smoking of marijuana, according to specialists.

Americans long ago climbed nonchalant about women's attempts to improve on character with breast implants or discounts. In 2016, over 310,400 women underwent surgery in the United States to expand their breasts with plastic implants, according to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

Men, in contrast, have shied away from cosmetic surgery -- particularly for something as potentially embarrassing as oversize breasts. Women are roughly 3 times as likely as men to say they've undergone cosmetic surgery, irrespective of age, according to the Pew Research Center.

Fearing the stigma of gynecomastia, many guys have gone to such extremes as flattening their chests with duct tape or wearing tops which compress their chests and necks -- frequently leaving unsightly scars, even based on a cosmetic surgeons.

Now, nevertheless, cosmetic surgery for men is winning broader acceptance. What is more, guys like David are tired of compromising in their way of life and denying themselves the simplest joys of life, like swimming and going shirtless outside.

Throughout 2016, 27,760 men failed breast-reduction surgery, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. That indicated a 36 percent increase since 2000.

Many plastic surgeons say they've seen up to a doubling or tripling of company over the previous 3 years, despite the rather hefty fees they cost -- $4,500 to $8,000, prices that are usually not covered by medical insurance .

Among Ruff's former patients a 61-year-old tech sales representative out of suburban Maryland remembers years of attempting to conceal his enlarged breasts at the expense of enjoyment of life and athletic pursuits.

No matter how hard he exercised such as seat pressing up to 350 pounds he could not eliminate his big breasts.

And when he and his wife split several years back and he started going out with other women,"they certainly noticed it, too."

Last May, following years of soul-searching and internet research, Martin who spoke on condition his last name be withheld failed surgery that eliminated gobs of fat and glandular tissue out of his breasts.

There are still a great deal of unknowns regarding the causes of gynecomastia, however, scientists largely cite hormonal imbalance. Unlike the enlarged breasts on obese or obese guys who have large deposits of fat, gynecomastia can impact boys going through puberty, middle-aged guys and the older, whatever the overall state of their own bodies or just how much they weigh.

Men with gynecomastia suffer with a buildup of glandular tissue which character designed to secrete substances, like hormones or milk, through a system of ducts. Men are born with a blend of male and female hormones, nevertheless androgens like testosterone which control male traits such as muscle mass and body hair much outweigh traces of feminine estrogen which dictate how big breasts.

"Gynecomastia can happen when the hormonal equilibrium dramatically shifts, leading to an increase in a decline in androgen, as research doctors and endocrinologists Glenn D. Braunstein and Bradly D. Anawalt noticed in a research updated past year" as according to the specialist of male breast reduction surgery in Mumbai .

Marijuana effect

Gynecomastia may also be triggered by an adverse reaction to antibiotics, certain other medications, anabolic steroids and herbal products. And here is poor news for marijuana users: The most frequent cause for gynecomastia one of 18-to-35-year-olds is regular use of marijuana, based on Ruff. Pot is also an estrogen stimulator, therefore it raises the relative impact that estrogen has on these cells.

For gynecomastia sufferers that can not be aided by a shift in a medication prescription, exercise or diet , breast surgery is now a more appealing choice. Since improved technology makes it possible for individuals to forgo general anesthesia, the operation in many instances can be carried out in an outpatient basis and the healing period was shrunk substantially, so men can return to work within a day or 2.

Traditionally, surgeons used a scalpel and quite crude liposuction to remove fat and glandular tissue in the breasts. Sometimes, the surgeon removed surplus skin, to make a flatter, firmer chest.

But that process had its own drawbacks. It often led to diseases, skin accidents and excess bleeding. Patients complained about numbness at the breast which sometimes lasted as long as the year. And the operation frequently left thick, noticeable discoloration and permanently shifted pigment round the breast or nipple.

Utilizing ultrasoundThe technologies and techniques have significantly improved in the last ten years, however, particularly after the coming of the Vaser liposuction system, which uses ultrasound to break up and liquefy unwanted fat and expel it with an aspirator.

Khalifeh prefers another laser technique -- with the Smartlipo MPX system -- which does a much better job of diminishing loose skin across the torso.

The process takes approximately two hours and isn't the prettiest thing to watch.

In working on David, Khalifeh utilized his scalpel to create incisions under both of their nipples and throughout the armpits to make way for its thin metallic probes which were used to anesthetize the torso and then to break up the fat and tissue in the breasts.

When the fat was emulsified, the red fluid was pumped out and emptied via a rubber tube into a plastic container near the table. Khalifeh and a helper then surgically eliminated the breast tissue and both rubbery breast glands prior to sewing David back up.

Khalifeh, 43, a graduate of the Vanderbilt medical institution that did his residency at Johns Hopkins, was affable and reassuring during the operation. However, David was clearly surprised with the first pain of all of the probing.

"Oh, my god," he cried at one stage.

But following the anesthesia completely kicked in, the remainder of the operation went smoothly, and Khalifeh announced it a provisional victory, pending a follow-up examination later in the week and supposing there were no unexpected complications like bleeding.

Author's Bio: 

Kaarish Mehta based in Chandigarh, has been writing for various healthcare blogs. He has been writing various blogs for the past several years on various social platforms. His articles mostly revolve around raising awareness about the sensitive issue of male breast reduction surgery