My embarrassing condition needs a simple operation but in Nigeria, few can afford it | Michael Aromolaran

Gynecomastia - the benign growth of male breast tissue - is easily fixed but at a prohibitive cost for most Nigerians, leading many men to experience stigma and poor mental health

It was a few days before my 21st birthday in 2017 when my mother pointed out a small lump on my chest. I was weightlifting at the time and often walked around the house shirtless. Three weeks later, the lump had doubled in size. I went to a hospital, where a doctor diagnosed gynecomastia, a benign condition where an imbalance between the hormones testosterone and oestrogen causes an overdevelopment of breast tissues.

The irony was not lost on me: I was weightlifting because I aspired to the kind of masculinity typified by a chiseled chest and bulky muscles, but instead I had acquired a distinctly feminine trait.