British researchers have found that this problem is caused by a perception that eating disorders are a "woman's illness." This results in men not receiving treatment or attention for the real problem.

"At the age of 3, he didn't want to eat dead animals and he would only eat white rice and white bread and milk, but more and more as he got older he became more restrictive and selective in the way he would eat," a woman named Mary, whose son has an eating disorder, told ABC News. "He ended up with only two or three things he would eat and he suppressed his hunger pains so much, he didn't want to even come to dinner. Thanksgiving was horrible for him."

Mary identified herself and her son Eric under false names to keep her family members' identities private. She said her son had not "gained any weight in 13 years."

According to BBC News, researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Glasgow found eating disorders among young men were "underdiagnosed, undertreated and underresearched." The researchers interviewed 39 people aged 16 to 25, 10 of whom were men.

The study is published in the British Medical Journal.

"Our findings suggest that men may experience particular problems in recognizing that they may have an eating disorder as a result of the continuing cultural construction of eating disorders as uniquely or predominantly a female problem," the researchers found.

The anonymous responses from the male participants highlight why so many eating disorders among young men are ignored.

One participant said his doctor told him to "man up."

Another said he through eating disorders only affected "fragile teenage girls."

A third said eating disorders were "something girls got."

Leanne Thorndyke, of a charity to help treat eating disorders, said the pressure of body image is also affecting males more than many care to believe.

"The pressures on body weight and body image are affecting a much wider range of people, which obviously includes men," she told BBC News. "There is more pressure on men from magazines with celebrities and male models to have the 'ideal' body image.

"Boys and men tend to want to be bigger and more muscular and toned, which is a different ideal to women."