Idiopathic Gynecomastia significant predictor of future disease
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.
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