Does Long-distance riding harm to reproductive health?

Posted by tan xiao yan on


Yesterday, I read an article on whether cycling for a long time is good or not by chance. Someone posted the question on a website. And many netizens freely expressed their views. I will give my answer, too.

In 2007, an experiment conducted in America Cologne University showed unreasonable saddle in the structure was bad for the urogenital system. In fact, medicine community and bicycle industry had concerned the relevance to bicycle saddle and male erectile dysfunction (ED) in 1997.

The cyclists who like reading magazines might be familiar with the article published on BICYCLING magazine. Irwin Goldstein, a urologist, pointed the relationship between the bicycle saddle and male urogenital diseases (also called impotence) on this article. This professor proposed a proposal that riding shall be forbidden.

According to the professor Goldstein, the reason why long-distance cycling leads to impotence is that sitting in the saddle for a long time puts excessive pressure on the perineum, thus inhibiting blood flow. But this conclusion was not popular in science. Two urologists from a well-known university published a challenging report in Washington Times to the Goldstein's conclusion.

They deemed it was common for professional cyclists to have numbness due to long-time competing. But impotence was rare. Therefore, there is a conclusion beyond all question that the bicycle saddle should be redesigned to fit a human body.

In spite of comfortable and innocuous saddle at present, cyclists should also avoid numbness and other serious diseases on their own. Four pieces of advice following are practicable.

The perfect saddle place should be horizontal or slightly downward. If the saddle is upturned, it will put the pressure on the gluteal artery.

Make sure knees not fully extended when pedaling. It will do harm to the human body because of shifting center gravity into the crotch.

Avoid the arched in the surface saddle, while choosing the flat or concave surface one.

Last but not least, stand for ten minutes every day. It is necessary for bikers. Do remember far away from bicycles properly, stand for a while, walk for a while.

Even if long-distance riding does not cause impotence, cyclists actually feel pain. Do not neglect the pain, take care of yourself. There are some reasons.



Cause of pain

Pressure: the small saddle supports your body weight, producing very large pressure. Under the circumstance, the capillaries are oppressed, affecting the circulation of blood.

Shear force and friction: Sitting on the saddle with rolling slightly when pedaling causes friction. Before long, friction generates heat. It can lead to skin lesion and pain. The circulation of blood will be further impaired due to the shear force and pressure.

Moisture: sweating has a strong effect on the shear force.

Temperature: your skin temperature, especially the perineum temperature, will rise while cycling. Meanwhile, the dramatic rising temperature speeds up skin metabolism. What's worse, skin will get necrotic for lack of adequate nutrient.



There are some solutions to the trouble. (order by importance)

Comfortable saddle: A comfortable saddle means the width of the saddle accords with pelvic width, thus putting weight on gluteus maximus muscle. If the width is too wide, it will hinder the legs; if too narrow, "your important part" will be in danger.
Wear cycling pants: cycling pants have plenty of advantages.
equipped with padding. Soft padding is comfortable to sit. Generally speaking, padding is made up of sweat absorbing material. it can absorb the sweat, preventing from stickiness and friction.
close fitting. Most of the cycling pants are next to the skin. Protect your skin while cycling because of the friction between saddle and pants.
The material of pants is smooth. You may slip into a more comfortable place sitting on the saddle. More importantly, less pressure on gluteus maximus muscle will make you feel easy when pedaling. You can also save your energy.
Proper adjustment: Some of the cyclists dislike stooping to ride. In their opinion, it is painful to stoop to ride. They straighten to ride. But in this way, most of the weight falls on your butt. Hence, the butt will get pain for a long time. To save your butt, you must adjust the position of saddle and the height of handlebar. Make sure the weight is spread to 5 points, that is a butt, two feet, and two hands.
Correct cycling posture: The weight falls on 5 points on the base of proper adjustment. But the force on the butt is still the dominant pressure. High temperature and continuous stress are two advantages. Sitting on the saddle all the time lead to high temperature. The impairment of blood circulation is also bad for health. The best solution is lifting your butt for a while time and again when cycling. For example, stand up when you are riding every ten minutes so that decrease the butt damage and blood circulation.


To sum up, cycling is one of the healthiest and happiest that can be enjoyed. It cannot produce any side effects if you are cycling in a right way. It will not do harm to your health. But in order to avoid the accident, if you couple is trying to achieve a pregnancy, you'd better temporarily discount cycling. It takes about 70 days for sperm to develop from premature to mature forms. Make sure sperm parameters to come back to normal at the extended time mat be of great help, especially in individuals who have an abnormal semen analysis. Once a pregnancy occurs, the male partner can revert to cycling at his usual distance and intensity.