Bicycle Seat Design Can Directly Affect A Man's Sexual Function

Main Category: Erectile Dysfunction / Premature Ejaculation
Also Included In: Urology / Nephrology;  Men's health;  Sports Medicine / Fitness
Article Date: 08 Jan 2009 - 1:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Long suspected by the 5 million recreational bike riders and sexual medicine experts, bicycle seat design-shorter noseless seats versus the standard protruding nose extended seat-can directly affect a man's sexual function, based on the nation's first prospective study of healthy policemen riding bikes on the job. The study is published in the current issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Dr. Irwin Goldstein, director, Sexual Medicine Program at the San Diego-based Alvarado Hospital and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, wrote an accompanying editorial entitled "The A, B, C's of The Journal of Sexual Medicine: Awareness, Bicycle Seats, and Choices."

"For the first time, we have a prospective study of healthy policemen riding bikes on the job, using wider, no-nose bike saddles for six months. Not only did their sensation improve, their erectile function also improved. Changing saddles changed physiology. This is a landmark study for our field that that is important for future riders, and modification of lifestyle showing improvement without any active treatment," he said.

Ninety bicycling police officers from five metropolitan regions in the United States (Northwest, Southern, Desert West, Midwest, and Southeast) using traditional saddles were evaluated prior to changing saddles and then again after six months of using the noseless bicycle saddle.

The findings show that use of the noseless saddle resulted in a reduction in saddle contact pressure in the perineal region. There was a significant improvement in penile tactile sensation, and the number of men indicating they had not experienced genital numbness while cycling for the preceding six months rose from 27% to 82% using no-nose saddles.

Use of the noseless saddle also resulted in significant increases in erectile function as assessed by the initial evaluation, but there were no significant changes noted in Rigiscan® measures, a method used to record penile rigidity while the subject sleeps. With few exceptions, bicycle police officers were able to effectively use no-nose saddles in their police work and 97% of officers completing the study continued to use the no-nose saddle afterward.

Alvarado Hospital is a 306-bed acute care hospital that also operates the San Diego Rehabilitation Institute and Advanced Spine Institute, which serves patients with either inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation needs. Alvarado has more than 500 on-staff physicians, 1,000 employees and 400 volunteers who provide quality care to East County San Diego. Alvarado Hospital's programs include cardiac services, emergency medicine services, neuroscience, orthopedics, oncology, rehabilitation, general surgical services, sexual medicine, skull base surgery, sleep center, vascular services and surgical weight reduction. http://www.alvaradohospital.com

Source
Sandy Nesheiwat
Account Executive
MGA - Miller Geer Arizmendez, Inc.
18327 Gridley Road
Suite i
Cerritos, California 90703
http://www.millergeer.com