Your bicycle seat may affect your love life

This is from a recent NY Times article.

Dave Franzen
Eugene, Oregon
***************************************************************

October 4, 2005
Serious Riders, Your Bicycle Seat May Affect Your Love Life
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

A raft of new studies suggest that cyclists, particularly men, should be 
careful which 
bicycle seats they choose.

The studies add to earlier evidence that traditional bicycle saddles, the kind 
with a 
narrow rear and pointy nose, play a role in sexual impotence.

Some saddle designs are more damaging than others, scientists say. But even 
so-called 
ergonomic seats, to protect the sex organs, can be harmful, the research finds. 
The dozen 
or so studies, from peer-reviewed journals, are summarized in three articles in 
September's Journal of Sexual Medicine.

In a bluntly worded editorial with the articles, Dr. Steven Schrader, a 
reproductive 
health expert who studies cycling at the National Institute for Occupational 
Safety and 
Health, said he believed that it was no longer a question of "whether or not 
bicycle 
riding on a saddle causes erectile dysfunction."

Instead, he said in an interview, "The question is, What are we going to do 
about it?"

The studies, by researchers at Boston University and in Italy, found that the 
more a 
person rides, the greater the risk of impotence or loss of libido. And 
researchers in 
Austria have found that many mountain bikers experience saddle-related trauma 
that leads 
to small calcified masses inside the scrotum.

This does not mean that people should stop cycling, Dr. Schrader said. And 
those who ride 
bikes rarely or for short periods need not worry.

But riders who spend many hours on a bike each week should be concerned, he 
said. And he 
suggested that the bicycle industry design safer saddles and stop trivializing 
the risks 
of the existing seats.

A spokesman for the industry said it was aware of the issue and added that "new 
designs 
are coming out."

"Most people are not riding long enough to damage themselves permanently," said 
the 
spokesman, Marc Sani, publisher of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News. "But a 
consumer's 
first line of defense, for their enthusiasm as well as sexual prowess, is to go 
to a 
bicycle retailer and get fitted properly on the bike."

Researchers have estimated that 5 percent of men who ride bikes intensively 
have developed 
severe to moderate erectile dysfunction as a result. But some experts believe 
that the 
numbers may be much higher because many men are too embarrassed to talk about 
it or fail 
to associate cycling with their problems in the bedroom.

The link between bicycle saddles and impotence first received public attention 
in 1997 
when a Boston urologist, Dr. Irwin Goldstein, who had studied the problem, 
asserted that 
"there are only two kinds of male cyclists - those who are impotent and those 
who will be 
impotent."

Cyclists became angry and defensive, he said, adding: "They said cycling is 
healthy and 
could not possibly hurt you. Sure you can get numb. But impotent? No way."

The bicycle industry listened, said Joshua Cohen, a physical therapist in 
Chapel Hill, 
N.C., and the author of "Finding the Perfect Bicycle Seat." Manufacturers 
designed dozens 
of new saddles with cut outs, splits in the back and thick gel padding to 
relieve pressure 
on tender body parts.

Scientists also stepped up their research. Since 2000, a dozen studies have 
been carried 
out using sophisticated tools to see exactly what happens when vulnerable human 
anatomy 
meets the bicycle saddle.

The area in question is the perineum, between the external genitals and the 
anus. "When 
you sit on a chair you never put weight on the perineum," Dr. Schrader said. 
"But when you 
sit on a bike, you increase pressure on the perineum" sevenfold.

In men, a sheath in the perineum, called Alcock's canal, contains an artery and 
a nerve 
that supply the penis with blood and sensation. The canal runs along the side 
of a bone, 
Dr. Goldstein said, and when a cyclist sits hard on a narrow saddle, the artery 
and the 
nerve are compressed. Over time, a reduction of blood flow can mean that there 
is not 
enough pressure to achieve full erection.

In women, Dr. Goldstein said, the same arteries and nerves engorge the clitoris 
during 
sexual intercourse. Women cyclists have not been studied as much, he added, but 
they 
probably suffer the same injuries.

Researchers are using a variety of methods to study the compression caused by 
different 
saddles. One method involves draping a special pad with 900 pressure sensors 
over the 
saddle. The distribution of the rider's weight is then registered on a 
computer. In 
another technique, sensors are placed on the rider's penis to measure oxygen 
flowing 
through arteries beneath the skin. Blood flow is detected by other sensors that 
send a 
"swoosh" sound to a Doppler machine.

The research shows that when riders sit on a classic saddle with a teardrop 
shape and a 
long nose, a quarter of their body weight rests on the nose, putting pressure 
on the 
perineum. The amount of oxygen reaching the penis typically falls 70 percent to 
80 percent 
in three minutes. "A guy can sit on a saddle and have his penis oxygen levels 
drop 100 
percent but he doesn't know it," Mr. Cohen said. "After half an hour he goes 
numb."

Dr. Goldstein added, "Numbness is your body telling you something is wrong."

Today's ergonomic saddles have splits in the back or holes in the center to 
relieve 
pressure on the perineum. But this may make matters worse: the ergonomic 
saddles have 
smaller surface areas, so the rider's weight presses harder on less saddle, Dr. 
Schrader 
said. The perineum may not escape injury because its arteries run laterally and 
they are 
not directly over the cutouts. The arteries can come under more pressure when 
they come 
into contact with the cutouts' edges.

Thick gels on saddles can also increase pressure to the perineum, the studies 
found, 
because the material can migrate and form clumps in all the wrong places.

Just as many smokers do not get lung cancer, many cyclists will never develop 
impotence 
from bicycle seats, the scientists said. What makes one person more vulnerable 
than 
another is not known. Body weight seems to matter: heavier riders exert more 
pressure on 
saddles. Variations in anatomy may also make a difference.

Dr. Goldstein said he often saw patients who were stunned to learn that riding 
a bicycle 
led to their impotence. One middle-aged man rode in a special cycling event to 
honor a 
friend and has been impotent since. A 28-year-old who came in for testing, Dr 
Goldstein 
said, showed the penile blood flow of a 60-year-old. A college student who had 
competed in 
rough cycling sports was unable to achieve an erection until microvascular 
surgery 
restored penile blood flow.

"We make kids wear helmets and knee pads," Dr. Goldstein said. "But no one 
thinks about 
protecting the crotch."

The safest seats and saddles, experts say, force the rider to sit back firmly 
on the sit 
bones so the perineum is protected.

Dr. Schrader advocates saddles that do not have noses. After finding that 
traditional 
saddles reduced the quality of nighttime erections in young policemen who 
patrol on 
bicycles, he has persuaded scores of officers in several cities to use noseless 
seats and 
is now studying the officers' sexual function over six months.

Nunzio Lamaestra, a 46-year-old police officer in San Antonio, said he 
appreciated his 
noseless bicycle saddle.

"You get used to riding without the nose," he said. "I can do everything, 
including ride 
with no hands."



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