Twenty-two-year old Alex Rees still feels the pain of adolescence, when he shied away from friends because of enlarged breasts.

"Changing in the locker room ... I'd always be trying to hide in the corner. I wouldn't feel comfortable maybe going swimming or just really taking shirts off," he said.

He suffered from gynecomastia, which causes excess breast tissue in males. Dr. Michelle Copeland says it affects 40-60 percent of men at sometime in their lifetime.

"It can start when you're in puberty and sometimes it will regress, but very often it persists through adulthood," said Dr. Copeland.

Special compression garments can help flatten out the breasts, but many teens and young men, like Rees, are opting for surgery.

"It got to the stage where I really had just decided it was something I was going to have to do," said Rees

Last year alone, nearly 14,000 teenage boys got breast reductions, a 21 percent increase from the year before. Dr. Roxanne guy is with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. She attributes the jump to boys feeling peer pressure.

"Boys now know a little bit more about plastic surgery. I think that it's a little bit more accepted," said Dr. Guy.

The surgery usually entails liposuction under light sedation and is done on an outpatient basis.

"There's been really no pain at all," Rees said, just 24 hours after the surgery.

Before opting for an operation, it's critical to figure out if there's an underlying medical condition. And, in young boys, if hormonal fluctuations are the cause:

"The vast majority of the time, probably 80 percent of the time, that does get better within about 12 months. So, the first option is to just simply wait," said Dr. Copeland.

And let puberty take its course. But puberty can take a lot longer and Dr. Copeland says many of her young patients aren't willing to wait.

It's important to rule out medical conditions first since enlarged breasts in males can an be triggered by liver or kidney disease. If you think you or a male in your life has the condition the first step is to contact a doctor.