Boys With Breasts (C4): Here's another of those documentaries with an attention-seeking title masking a serious documentary on a subject that's not much discussed in polite circles.

Some might think it results from someone in C4's factual department being what's termed "a breast man". Last week, My Breasts Are Too Big. This week, Boys With Breasts. Coming soon: Celebrity Breasts (anything with Jordan fits into that category) and inevitably, The 100 Breast Moments on TV.

Coincidentally, gynaecomastia - the medical term for over development of the male breast tissue - turns up in the first episode of the forthcoming Martin Clunes series Doc Martin (another title that's too clever by half - it's about a doctor whose first name is Martin), although treated in a more lightweight manner.

Boys With Breasts was actually about men with breasts. We're not talking obese men with fatty breasts but males suffering from a medical condition that causes them to grow enough tissue to fill, in one man's case, a 50DD cup. It's all to do with an imbalance of the hormones oestrogen and testosterone.

The condition is common in puberty but most boys grow out of it. Those who don't suffer both embarrassment and pain, with name-calling like "tit boy" and being shunned by fellow pupils. It affects their self-esteem, sense of masculinity and, as one sufferer told the programme, caused suicidal tendencies.

David Dennison, who developed gynaecomastia in the 1960s, thought he was a freak and was turning into a girl. He had surgery at 15 that left him scarred for life. "They did a very bad job on me," he declared, lifting his shirt to reveal the evidence of his botched operation.

Happily, things have improved. Gym instructor Tatum had breast reduction surgery that didn't work satisfactorily. His surgeon told him the hospital's elderly liposuction machine wasn't strong enough. So they decided to get hold of a better machine and try what was scarily called "aggressive liposuction" coupled with a surgical procedure to remove tissue.

Tatum is 27, but Sam McBeth was ten years younger and had surgery after saying: "I feel different to other people. It don't feel right". The result was much better than in the case of Dennison, with Sam telling us: "I feel like a normal person".

Other men, like John Phipps, have learnt to live with big breasts. He's moved from feeling suicidal and like a mutant at 16 to accepting his condition. He even goes shopping for bras at his local supermarket with his wife, who doesn't want him to have surgery.

Some men, it was reported, use their breasts as part of sex play with their partners. Others attempt to induce breast milk production. One man claimed that through a combination of gynaecomastia and willpower, he was able to produce breast milk after his wife gave birth. For him, breast really was best.

Published: 19/08/2004