# Does excess alcohol give men breasts?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 6, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010 "2011-11-06T00:01:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@anon11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anon11)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/1 "2011-11-06T00:01:34Z")
Is this a myth? If not, is it reversible without surgery?
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/2 "2011-11-06T00:09:54Z")
God I hope so. I pretty bored and drunk right now, I could use something to play with.
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### Author:  [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/3 "2011-11-06T00:40:35Z")
Alcohol has a lot of calories, and fat in the chest region is as likely as fat anywhere else.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/4 "2011-11-06T01:09:30Z")
Yes, excess alcohol often gives men breasts. But not their own.
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### Author:  [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/5 "2011-11-06T01:18:51Z")
Liver failure alters hormone balances and can cause gynecomastia.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/6 "2011-11-06T01:27:38Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#):
>
> Liver failure alters hormone balances and can cause gynecomastia.
Ya hear that, ladies?!
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/7 "2011-11-06T01:47:02Z")
[http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=does%20alcohol%20get%20converted%20to%20estrogen%3F&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CF4QFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drmostovoy.com%2FDecline\_of\_Masculinity.htm&ei=--W1TuaCCKjf0QHiidHRBw&usg=AFQjCNGaCcBNfly6hKbtPKYdKULQf8JyvA](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=does%20alcohol%20get%20converted%20to%20estrogen%3F&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CF4QFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drmostovoy.com%2FDecline_of_Masculinity.htm&ei=--W1TuaCCKjf0QHiidHRBw&usg=AFQjCNGaCcBNfly6hKbtPKYdKULQf8JyvA)
Excessive alcohol consumpton _can_, in fact, have an estrogenic effect on the male hormonal system. Gynecomastia (man boobs) is a result of too much estrogen in the man’s hormonal system. So…
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/8 "2011-11-06T02:10:38Z")
**tosses another empty 5th of tequila**
Why isn’t it werking!?! _hic_
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2011, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/9 "2011-11-06T06:25:22Z")
> [@cmyk](#):
>
> **tosses another empty 5th of tequila**
>
> Why isn’t it werking!?! _hic_
Are you sure? Go get an UnderArmor shirt; if you got 'em, even little ones, that tight little shirt will have 'em hanging right out. :eek:
There’s a lot of man boobs out there!
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2011, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/10 "2011-11-06T06:28:56Z")
I certainly don’t have any pectoral mass, but I wouldn’t call them moobs, either. Plus there’s hair… it’s just not worth it. Come to think of it, I’ll play with my wife’s… she’s got the real kind.
brb
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### Author:  [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2011, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/11 "2011-11-07T10:16:57Z")
If your alcohol comes mainly in the form of beer, you get in addition to the calories (which add fat everywhere) also female phytohormones from the hops that help with turning the fat into breasts specifically.
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2011, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/12 "2011-11-07T11:51:26Z")
> [@constanze](#):
>
> If your alcohol comes mainly in the form of beer, you get in addition to the calories (which add fat everywhere) also female phytohormones from the hops that help with turning the fat into breasts specifically.
[This phenomenon also occurs with the ingestion of wine and spirits](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15706799) (especially those with a colour or tint to them like Bourbon or Scotch, but not, supposedly, with clear ones like Vodka). I once read that there was sufficient estrogen in some whiskeys to maintain the [estrous cycle in female rats](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrous_cycle#Rats) that had had their ovaries removed.
I’ll also use this opportunity to repeat that, in a man, breast enlargement can occur _if_ alcohol consumption has led to cirrhosis of the liver. This is a result of the liver damage causing impaired breakdown and removal of estrogen (female hormone) from the circulation (with all men, cirrhotic or not, having naturally occurring estrogen in their bodies).
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### Author:  [@anon11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anon11)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/13 "2011-11-09T18:37:25Z")
Is liver damage the only cause of breast enlargement, beyond obesity? There would be other, more obvious signs if you had liver damage, right?
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### Author:  [@anon11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anon11)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-excess-alcohol-give-men-breasts/602010/14 "2011-11-18T22:03:53Z")
So, does any amount of alcohol have an estrogen effect on men? Is liver damage the only cause of breast enlargement, in alcohol drinkers, beyond obesity? There would be other, more obvious signs if you had liver damage, right?