Dr. Lista on Plastic Surgery for Men in the Globe and Mail

Are men becoming more like women? That’s what GQ magazine wants to know. Apparently it’s a pretty popular question in the media lately, with blog posts and magazine articles wondering about the changing way we understand gender roles and expectations. In this case, though, GQ is mostly concerned with appearances and the ways men visually present themselves to the world. Testing out concealers, bronzers and eye-gels, the article’s author is pretty impressed and surprised by his improved appearance.

Dave McGinn of the Globe and Mail also took notice of the article, and he has some interesting points to make about the ways men think about their appearance and how they have changed. I had a chance to talk to him about what I’ve noticed in terms of the increase in male patients we’ve seen at The Plastic Surgery Clinic over the past 25 years. And there definitely has been an increase, to the point where I would say fully one third of our patients are men. The truth is, plastic surgery for men is no longer the taboo topic it once was. In fact, if you look at the instructions in the textbooks we studied while I was in medical school, they say that if a man comes in for plastic surgery, the first thing you should do is send him to see a psychiatrist! Thankfully our attitudes are a lot different these days.

What kind of plastic surgery procedures are men looking for? Well, they come to see us for all kinds of treatments (both surgical and non-surgical) but most commonly we see men who want liposuction, tummy tucks and facelifts. The most popular procedure by far, though, is gynecomastia correction, also known as male breast reduction. I’ve written on this blog before about how the majority of the time gynecomastia doesn’t respond to exercise or diet choices – it can be a complicated condition – and so for many of these men who feel embarrassed when they take off their shirts, a surgical solution is really the only option. It’s so important to me that the men who don’t feel good about themselves because of this problem know that there might be a way to solve it that’s right for them. There’s nothing we love more than to help people feel good about themselves.

The Globe and Mail article is available here and it’s definitely worth a read. It seems like it’s only recently become mainstream to talk about these kinds of issues. The way we continue to talk about and think about these topics is going to be an interesting journey.

• posted by Dr. Frank Lista, MD, FRCSC