Chinese farmer gets breasts removed

London (IANS) - A Chinese farmer who had a huge pair of male breasts has reunited with his wife after an operation to remove them.

Guo Feng, 53, said his unusual chest had made his life unbearable and his wife Jia Ling had moved out of their home because she could no longer bear the taunts from their neighbours.

"About 10 years ago my chest started to get larger but I didn't think much of it as I was putting on weight all over. But in the last few years it had become unbearable," a Daily Mail report, quoting Feng, said.

The condition, known as gynecomastia, can affect men at any age and is usually caused by overeating or hormonal imbalances. Other rarer causes include kidney failure or genetic disorders.

The dairy farmer spent all his savings trying to get treatment before some sympathetic surgeons at a specialist clinic in Beijing took pity on him. They removed his breasts in a five hour operation for free.

However, the doctors are still baffled over what caused his breasts to balloon.

Doctor Zhang Lilan, from the Jinan Chest Hospital in Beijing, said: "In my 30 years working here at the chest clinic I have never seen anything like it."

"We wondered if he had eaten any poisons or contaminants but have found nothing after testing his blood. His genetic material is also normal. It is not a cancer," he said.

"It seems to be fatty tissue. The best we can suggest is that it is the biggest case of man boobs ever. We removed them and told him to eat less fatty foods in future and to have a healthier diet," Lilan added.

Feng is just relieved his decade-long ordeal is over. He had previously threatened to cut off his breasts himself if none helped him.

"I had bigger boobs than my wife - she got so many comments from our neighbours that she moved out to live with her mother," Feng said.

His wife has now returned to him together with their son.

"My wife Jia Ling was being asked so many stupid questions by the other housewives whenever she went to the market. They would ask her if I still had anything, you know, down there," he said.

"They told her, at 40, she still had time to get another man. And with me having bigger breasts than her as you can imagine our sex life just vanished," he said.

"My son Xiaobo was 11 at the time - in middle school. He'd come home and say the boys were calling him the freak's son," he said.

"The past few years have been hell - but now I can make a new start as a fresh man," he said.