28-01-2024, 01:45 PM
Hi BuddingB, I'll share with you what happened to me a few years back. I live in the UK (in case it makes any difference).
For about a week my chest became incredibly painful to the touch. I was budding pretty hard but I didn't think it would hurt that much. Fearing that it might be something other than budding, I went to see my doctor. In London you actually go to a "surgery" (a medical practice) and talk to the first doctor available. So, I saw this guy for the first time and he checks my chest and any tissue on it. He concludes that it's gynecomastia and he asks me if I do a sedentary job, if I changed my diet etc... I then told him that I was taking Pueraria Mirifica to slow my loss of hair. Since there are no clinically documented trials on PM, he quickly went on Google and looked it up, noting that the word "oestrogenic" popped up a few times. He then concluded that it was the PM that was giving me gynecomastia and he suggested I stopped unless I wanted to grow breasts. (I might have smiled at that....)
He sent me to do a blood test to check my testosterone (which turned out to be higher than average) and my estrogens (which were low, but the clinical tests can't spot phytoestrogens), and finally he sent me to do an MRI to check my thyroid in case there was any probem there. All results came back negative apart from the higher testosterone and I simply got away with a diagnosis of gynecomastia and the advice to stop the herbs. (I may have forgotten that advice though...)
For about a week my chest became incredibly painful to the touch. I was budding pretty hard but I didn't think it would hurt that much. Fearing that it might be something other than budding, I went to see my doctor. In London you actually go to a "surgery" (a medical practice) and talk to the first doctor available. So, I saw this guy for the first time and he checks my chest and any tissue on it. He concludes that it's gynecomastia and he asks me if I do a sedentary job, if I changed my diet etc... I then told him that I was taking Pueraria Mirifica to slow my loss of hair. Since there are no clinically documented trials on PM, he quickly went on Google and looked it up, noting that the word "oestrogenic" popped up a few times. He then concluded that it was the PM that was giving me gynecomastia and he suggested I stopped unless I wanted to grow breasts. (I might have smiled at that....)
He sent me to do a blood test to check my testosterone (which turned out to be higher than average) and my estrogens (which were low, but the clinical tests can't spot phytoestrogens), and finally he sent me to do an MRI to check my thyroid in case there was any probem there. All results came back negative apart from the higher testosterone and I simply got away with a diagnosis of gynecomastia and the advice to stop the herbs. (I may have forgotten that advice though...)