  Two recent experiments have demonstrated that the effective $\rho$-mass in
nuclear medium, as extracted from the $^3He(\gamma, \pi^+ \pi^-)$ reaction, is
substantially reduced. This has been advocated as an indication of partial
restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear matter. We show that even in the
absence of chiral symmetry, effective mean field nuclear matter models can
explain these findings quantitatively.
