Cycling and erectile dysfunction?

Question

Is erectile dysfunction common among cyclists who cycle 30miles or more per week?

What have bicycle companies done to help reduce or eliminate the risk of erectile dysfunction?

Answer 1

30 miles a week? Absolutely not.

Answer 2

30 miles per week will not do any serious damage to your nerves or blood vessels. Some studies, however, point to blood flow problems with relation to people who cycle a lot more miles per week and continue it for many months to years at a time. These studies are also scrutinized because there aren't any perfect ways of measuring the problem associating it specifically to cycling.

The person who, in many people's opinion, has done the most research in this is Dr. Minkow who work with Specialized cycles. He helped create the "Body geometry" components. I am not a retailer for Specialized, i work for the competition, but I ride Specialized saddles and shoes because of the work they do. Follow this link for Dr. Minkow's info:

http://www.specialized.com/specs/spec.js...

I wouldn't worry about ED and cycling for the majority of people out there but saddles can cause numbness quite quickly and that is why I use the Specialized saddles, not because of ED. Keep Riding!

Answer 3

In years back, this was a problem.  I remember on the older style seats, after a ride, you could have reached out and thumped my d**k and I wouldn't have felt it, it was so numb.  Since these days, seats have become ergonomically correct and have channel cut down the middle of the seat that avoids compressing the bundle of nerves in the male perineum that causes the numbness, and over time, ED.  Specialized makes some very good seats for just about every body type.

Answer 4

How old are you?

Maybe its not the bike, and just ED at a more "naturalistic" level.

Answer 5

From my personal experience...that would be a no.

Answer 6

What bike companies have done is create bikes that increase your cardio-vascular fitness. This reduces heart disease, may reduce diabetes, lower your blood pressure and these are things that may contribute to ED.

Have your bike fit for you, try different saddles if you're having any kind of pain down there ;-)

Answer 7

Don't think there is a correlation. Lance Armstrong doesn't seem to have a problem. But, it is an interesting theory.

Answer 8

If you said 300 miles a week you may have something to complain about.  but no, at 30 miles a week it is not common and should not cause any medical issues.  It's not the bike, it would be the saddle and your correct frame size and position on the bike.  If you feel a lot of pressure from the saddle you may want to experiment with the tilting of the saddle nose.  Most men like their saddle with the nose a little higher than level.  And consider trading for a different saddle.  Your problem can be from many causes; lack of rest, stress, etc.

Answer 9

There were some news stories on that a few years ago, but I don't know about any comprehensive studies.   The information I saw related the potential problem to abnormal placement of a couple small arteries in that part of the body, i.e., if your blood vessels were in the normal spot, you wouldn't have a problem.

Even so, the shape of bicycle seats has changed significantly since then to avoid the issue.

  

That said, after decades of riding way more than 30 miles a week, my equipment still works as requested.