9 replies to this topic

[neuropharm]

Hello,

I recently had surgery (excision + lipo) to correct a case of gynecomastia that I've had since around puberty. Apparently most (if not all) plastic surgeons send the excised tissue/gland off to be analyzed (biopsy) as a matter of precaution. While speaking to my PS the other day he mentioned that my biopsy results came back and revealed "atyipcal ductal hyperplasia". He stressed that no malignancy was found and I should not be freaking out but it does mean that I have an increased risk of breast cancer in the future. He recommended that I take my biopsy results to my family Dr. who will decide the best course of action as far as scheduling anual check ups which I assume is to monitor any abnormal breast growth.

A little background: I have smoked and drank heavily on and off over the last five years, put on a fair amount of weight (I'm 5'11, 190lbs, I want to get down to 160 soon.) I'm almost certain that heavy drinking, smoking, lack of exercise, unhealthy BMI and poor diet and exposure to environmental endocrin disrupters had worsened my gynecomastia over the last five or so years. I'm very happy with my results and am now very motivated to get in very good shape and also make some drastic lifestyle changes in order to do all I can to prevent breast cancer sometime down the road. I stopped drinking and smoking well before my surgery (I've been without both for 3+ months now) and I've also started dieting and adding healthy supplements back.

I'm currently taking:

- Basic multi-vitamin
- Fish Oil 4g/day
- Vitamin C 2g/day
- cq10 100mg/day
- Aged garlic extract 1g/day
- Grape seed extract 100mg/day
- 30mg zinc/day
- 200mcg selenium/day
- b-100 complex x1/day
- sesamin 2g/day
- Turmeric 450mg x2/day. * I'm unsure of this as I've read conflicting data regarding possible decrease in overall testosterone or work as an antiandrogen

Any suggestions on which supplements to take and which not to take considering my diagnosis? My hope is to improve overall health, create balanced testosterone/estrogen ratio, flush/block excess/environmental estrogens from system, use anything that can be used as a chemoprevenative (specifically in regard to breast cancer).

I'm on the fence about Turmeric/Curcumin (although I already started taking it this week), I3C (conflicting studies show it might actually decrease testosterone and or cause cancer?) and calcium-d-glucarate (This seems good for flushing environmental estrogens from the system but does it also flush testosterone and healthy levels of DHT from the system?)

I had a hormonal workup 6 months prior to my surgery which revealed mostly normal things as far as testosterone/estrogen goes. If anything my prolactin was slightly high-normal and my testosterone was slightly low-normal. I'm also really curious what could cause this condition. I realize that gynecomastia occurance is very common around puberty and that it usually goes away (and often times it doesn't) but how did seemingly pubertal gynecomastia progress into atypical ductal hyperplasia? Environmental estrogens? Poor health (drinking, smoking)? Sorry for the rambling and thanks in advance for any advice/input.

Edited by neuropharm, 20 March 2006 - 01:57 AM.

[neuropharm]

Yes. I saw an endo about 6 months ago. I explained the reason for my visit (hormonal checkup to make sure everything was normal before proceeding with gynecomastia surgery) no sense in spending the $ on the surgery if I had a hormonal inbalance that would make it come right back. He measured prolactin, total test, total est, thyroid, etc. and everything was pretty much normal. The blood work also included a Beta-HCG tumor marker, which came back negative. He said to proceed with the surgery. I'm pretty sure my condition had stabalized years ago as I had no increase in growth or tenderness. My PS says he removed around 95% of the gland/duct (If he removed any more I'd have indentions in my chest). So I think my getting the surgery was a pretty healthy thing to do considering my diagnosis. I'm just curious about any prevenative nutrition (diet, supplements) that I could take to help prevent breast cancer from actually forming. I plan to see my family Dr. and schedule anual checkups in order to monitor for any changes, but I'd like to take a more proactive approach to my health.

[neuropharm]

Testosterone Total 366 ng/dL (Lab male ref. range 175/781)

Prolactin 8.46 ng/mL (Lab male ref. range 2.64-13.13)

Estradiol 39 pg/mL (Lab male ref. range 20-75)

[neuropharm]

I also recall warning my Dr. that I had only slept maybe 3 hours the night before I gave my blood work (It was an early morning appointment) since I had read that not getting a good nights sleep could effect morning levels of various hormones. He said it didn't matter.

[neuropharm]

So my total testosterone was closer to normal than low normal?

My concern is that the biopsy on the removed gland revealed atyipical ductal hyperplasia. My Dr. seemed to indiciate it wasn't very common for results to come back with that result so after googling "atyipical ductal hyperplasia" I got pretty concerned about having a 4-5x increased risk of developing breast cancer eventually (that's what I've read about ADH). I guess I just want to make sure it (a) doesn't come back (the surgery was 6,600$ US but cost me more than that in mental anguish over the years) ... (b) doesn't turn into cancer. I guess the risk of (b) happening is very low now that 95% or so of the gland is removed.

[neuropharm]

I just turned 25, white, activity up until this point has been pretty low. I work in IT and I'm deskbound 9ish hours per day and usually more when I get home. I plan to get down to a healthy BMI and then start resistance training and I expect things will improve. Thanks for the input.