Sam Wilson has spent his teenage years in fear of humiliation and embarrassment, because as a boy he has suffered the unthinkable - he's developed enlarged female-like breasts.
For seven years Sam took the drug Risperdal. He was prescribed it as a 10-year-old by a psychiatrist to treat Tourette's Syndrome and the behavioural disorder ADD.
His mother Pam became so concerned at what the drug appeared to be doing to him, three years ago she called the Auckland office of Janssen, the company that manufactures it.
Then she saw the story on 3 News this week about how teenage boys on Risperdal in the US have developed breasts.
"I felt a real affinity with the people because Sam's had this problem for sometime," she says. "His breasts have gotten to the stage where they're physically giving him a hard time and he wants to have it operated on."
In the US a lawyer acting for nine teenage boys is suing the company and Pam Wilson says she will consider doing the same.
Just how many teenagers like Sam have been prescribed the drug in New Zealand isn't known, but the Medsafe says only a tiny fraction of males developed enlarged breasts during clinical trials.
Sam says one is one too many and he's turning to his only option, surgery.
But even after the operation, his mother says Sam's future is uncertain.
Even though the drug is approved for use on children over five, she worries about its potency and says the full impact on Sam is still not yet known.