Safety in the Saddle
In issue No. 66 of the RoadBikeRider.com Newsletter, we commented on the new round of media
attention to erectile dysfunction (ED) in cyclists.
Articles in Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal
and other publications revived the issue that caused a national stir in 1997.
They also turned the spotlight back on Irwin Goldstein, M.D.,
the Boston urologist who has been outspoken about the alleged dangers of sitting
on a bike seat.
It's not surprising that RBR roadies rallied to the defense
of their sport.
Causes and Solutions
I've been a fitness/commuting rider for over 20
years. I used to have problems with temporary numbness, but in all honesty it
had more to do with being overweight (for a cyclist) and improper seat
positioning than with saddle type or miles ridden.
I now I have a Specialized Body Geometry saddle and
I really like it. I now prefer shorts that have little or no padding. The
padding seems to have caused as much of the problem as the conventional-design
seats I used in the past.
It is almost impossible to pinpoint an exact cause
of the problem. I'm still amazed at how sensitive our bodies are to even
extremely small changes in riding position/bike fit. Everyone just has to find
out what works for them. -- Bob R.
Doomsday for Viagra
This is the letter I sent to Time concerning
their article:
Your article "Sex and the Serious Cyclist" is rather
confusing. On one hand, it claims that cycling can lead to erectile problems,
yet states that "as many as 4% of male cyclists have problems with impotence due
to cycling." Are you kidding me? 4%? If the total American male impotency rate
was 4%, Viagra would be nothing more than a dust collector on the druggist's
shelf. I would suggest that those with this particular problem take up
cycling and join the 96% who have absolutely no problem (in the saddle or out).
-- Robert W.
Don't Dismiss the Numbers
As someone who spent much of his career in science,
I must take exception to the following paragraph that appeared in RBR newsletter
No. 66:
He (Goldstein) even did a study and reported that
cyclists are four times more likely than runners to suffer erectile dysfunction.
Sounds like real trouble -- until you see that the ED rate was just 1 in 100
runners and 4 in 100 riders.
A 300% increase in a rate of physical impairment is
considered huge, almost no matter how low the absolute rate. In medicine, there
is oftentimes a hullabaloo when a 25% increase is seen. The breast implant and
hormone replacement therapy controversies are examples. There are many others,
but you get the point.
I do agree that the sample size is probably too small. The way to challenge this
conclusion is to demand a statistical analysis of the results. This exercise
will determine if the conclusion is statistically valid. Such a test is
essentially mandatory in most legitimate tests.
One other issue is that Goldstein assumed a cause and effect relationship
between bicycle riding and ED. This may or may not be true. There may be other
factors that were not considered. -- Murray S.
How to Measure Your Sit Bones
While the information in your article,
How to Find a Safe
Saddle, is all true, it misses one crucial bit of advice: How to measure the
width of your sit bones and use that measurement to choose a saddle of the right
width.
I found that sitting on a piece of paper on a firm
(but not hard) office-type chair left two indentations that could be measured.
When I took that measurement and applied it to pick a saddle, I found one that
actually fit, and fit well. It also confirmed that the last two saddles I bought
were too narrow.
Getting a saddle of good quality also helps. I ended
up with a Selle Italia ProLink. -- Anker B.
Get 'Bent!
I read your
article on seats and
I tend to agree with you. For most of us it is a non-issue. However, one option
was missed, recumbents. You don't have to give up cycling, just ride a different
style. -- D.M.
ED? Who Cares?
Of course, to those of us who have been married for
20 years, erectile dysfunction is no longer a concern and hence not a problem.
-- Jim V.
No Reason to Curtail Our Passion
I e-mailed the following note to the writer of the
article in the Wall Street Journal:
As a racing bicyclist and a veteran journalist, I
can honestly own up to a few occasional (and brief) bouts with numbness. They
occurred many years ago, probably at a time when I set up my position on the
bike myself. It’s likely that I did a bad job of it.
I can assure you that I have suffered no such dysfunction in years and years. I
have better bikes, better saddles and better body position on the bicycle.
For the many, many thousands of miles I have ridden, and for all the stories I
have swapped with hundreds of racing buddies, I must say that this phenomenon
has rarely, if ever come up. (No pun intended.)
For me and my racing friends, any health issue relating to my sport is
important. Many of us log 250 or more miles per week. In writing this, it is not
my purpose to dispute the importance of this question.
However, I’d love to see such stories better supported by facts. Stories about
bike saddles and genital issues hit every so often. They always seem to ring a
little hollow. To date none has been supported (this is the journalist speaking
now) by respectable statistics.
The one-location study of less than two-dozen
bicycle policemen (several suffering from numbness or erectile dysfunction) didn’t
necessarily cut it for me, either. Here’s why:
Bicycle cops on patrol are off their bikes much more often than are bicycle
athletes (or even serious recreational riders). The makes me suspect that the
cops in this study may have been riding bad bicycles with bad saddles. Their
bicycles may have been poorly chosen for each policeman, and a good or bad
position on the bike may have been purely a matter of chance for the cops in the
study.
In any case, I am not sure this small study can truly be used to support
warnings for all bicyclists. They do not necessarily provide reasons for me -- or anyone -- to curtail
pursuit of our passion (as one of my friends suggested to me).
It is possible that for every cyclist who suffers numbness (or even dysfunction)
there are thousands whose “functionality” is vastly improved because of
the sport’s benefits to the circulatory system, as another recent study
asserted.
Please keep us honest on this one, but please insist on better statistics.
-- Tom B.
A Danger Worse than Impotence
Dr. Goldstein has said, "There are only two kinds of male cyclists -- those who
are impotent and those who will be impotent."
A far more serious threat to public health:
"There are only two kinds of truck/SUV drivers -- those who are impudent, and
those who will be impudent." -- Richard M.
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