Bicycle saddle shape affects penile blood flow

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of bicycle saddle shape on penile blood flow during cycling. Penile blood flow was measured using a laser Doppler flowmeter in 20 potent male volunteers. In a counterbalanced, crossover design, measurements were taken in the standing and sitting positions, on either a narrow unpadded or wide unpadded saddle, before and after cycling for 5 min. Before cycling, penile blood flow (ml=min=100 g tissue) was significantly decreased from 1.6 AE 0.7 to 1.5 AE 0.7 (P ¼ 0.010) on the wide saddle and from 1.7 AE 0.6 to 1.0 AE 0.5 (P < 0.001) on the narrow saddle. After 5 min of cycling, the changes in penile blood flow on the wide and narrow saddles were 0.34 AE 0.49 and 70.38 AE 0.49, respectively (P < 0.001). The narrow saddle is associated with more significant reductions in penile blood flow and could be a source of blunt perineal trauma, potentially leading to erectile dysfunction.

Influence of bicycle seat pressure on compression of the perineum: A MRI analysis

“…Researchers interested in reducing bicycle seat pathologies have indirectly assessed internal compression in response to various saddle designs and postures by examining seat interface pressure (Schrader et al, 2002; Lowe et al, 2004;Bressel and Cronin, 2005), finite element analysis of internal perineal stress (Spears et al, 2003), transcutaneous penile oxygen pressure (Nayal et al, 1999;Schwarzer et al, 2002), and blood flow of glans penis (Jeong et al, 2002). One fundamental limitation of these indirect approaches is they are unable to determine which structures are compressed and where peak compression occurs in relation to the bicycle seat.…”

A field-based approach for examining bicycle seat design effects on seat pressure and perceived stability

“…These results have been supported recently (Potter et al, 2008) and may be attributed to gender differences in pelvis-saddle interactions and differences in segmental mass distribution. With respect to other seat design studies, females were either not included because of the measurement made (Breda et al, 2005;Gemery et al, 2007;Jeong et al, 2002;Munarriz et al, 2005;Schwarzer et al, 2002), or if they were included as participants, they were grouped into the same analyses as males (Lowe et al, 2004), which negates the ability to generalize results to either gender.…”

Epidemiologic evidence supporting the association between bicycle riding and erectile dysfunction

“…Jeong et al [21] had the same conclusion after measuring penile blood flow using a laser Doppler flowmeter in 20 potent male volunteers before, during, and after cycling on a narrow unpadded and a wide unpadded saddle. Ronado et al [22] compared pressure distribution of two flat surface saddles with two saddles that have a hole in the perineal area on five volunteers cycling.…”