cycling is great but can it affect your
sex life I'm Dr Rena Malik urologist and
pelvic surgeon and today we're going to
talk about how cycling affects sexual
function now before I get into it I want
to add this disclaimer this video is not
to discourage cycling it's a great form
of exercise and transportation in fact
it's an excellent form of cardiovascular
exercise and it's affordable and
environmental if you're using it to go
from place to place so this doesn't only
improve your health physically but also
mentally and it's been linked with
reducing heart disease related mortality
in fact it's even been shown to improve
18 different chronic diseases including
diabetes high blood pressure obesity
coronary artery disease and depression
not including the benefit of reducing
stress and its low impact on your joints
which has so many other benefits so this
video is not to deter you from cycling
but make you aware of the possible
issues so know that if you're an avid
cycler and you all of a sudden notice
changes in your sexual or urinary
function you can make changes that can
help prevent further problems or you can
make them now as a prevention so how
does cycling have anything to do with
your sexual function well when you sit
on a bicycle seat it adds increased
pressure to your perineum which is the
area between your genitals and the anus
and in that area there's two important
structures the pudendal nerve and the
pudendal artery now the pudendal nerve
is responsible for sensation to that
area between your legs and the genitals
and pressure on this nerve can lead to
damage over time the pudendal artery
carries blood to multiple areas in the
perineum including the bulbal urethral
dorsal and cavernous arteries which are
all important for sexual function when
this artery gets compressed it reduces
blood flow leading to what we call
ischemia which can all also harm the
nerve and the severity of the symptoms
that you get because of these problems
like erectile dysfunction or numbness
can vary depending on how long these
structures have been compressed and how
long that blood flow has been reduced
the good news is that these symptoms are
most often temporary and improved with
time generally speaking the most common
symptom is numbness in the genitals
which has been reported anywhere from 34
to 58 percent of people who cycle
regularly now let's talk about the
differences between men and women based
on the data so for men we know that
cycling can affect sexual function in a
few ways prolonged intense cycling can
lead to pressure so these pressure
symptoms that we talked about earlier
can lead to symptoms like erectile
dysfunction and perineal numbness now in
studies they've reported that erectile
dysfunction can occur in up to 24 of men
and numbness in up to 61 percent of men
now these studies looked at men whose
cycle of different variety of amounts
specifically some looked at those who
cycled greater than three hours a week
or greater than 400 kilometers a week
others looked at men who competed in
specific really prolonged races ranging
anywhere from 320 to 540 kilometers
however in a study that looked at almost
4 000 men who were members of sports
clubs and they were either recruited
through Facebook advertising or Outreach
to the different sports clubs found that
compared to swimmers and runners in
these sports clubs there was actually no
difference in sexual or urinary function
but I did notice a couple things they
noticed that cyclists were more likely
to develop a urethral stricture or
narrowing of the urethra as well as
genital numbness also we know that
rigorous exercise can raise cortisol
levels in our bodies because it's a
stressful activity which can also then
reduce testosterone so this is another
way potentially if you're doing
significant consistent prolonged
exercise you might notice a decrease
increase in testosterone now what about
women so just like men women can also
experience some effects due to cycling
interestingly the most common thing
reported for women is actually Trauma
from cycling however they do get
symptoms from the pressure and friction
of the bicycle seat and these can lead
to numbness or pain in the genital area
now that same study that they did for
men they repeated it for women they got
about 875 women who were members of
sports clubs and they found that 53
percent did report genital numbness
mostly around the vulva and the majority
of these women cycled about three to
five times per week for less than an
hour those women with numbness were also
more likely to have reduced arousal
lubrication and satisfaction with sex
this is likely because natural
lubrication is mainly influenced by
physical touch or stimulation of the
genitals and if you're feeling numb down
there you're not going to get as much
stimulation from physical touch so let's
get to it what can you do to minimize
the risk of having these issues in the
future number one you want to choose the
right bicycle seat so you want to pick a
seat that tries to distribute your
weight evenly over the saddle surface
and reduces pressure on the perineum or
genital area so while there's lots of
options that claim to be more ergonomic
research shows that wide Saddles and
those that are noseless have been the
best at specifically improving penile
oxygenation in men and saddle pressure
profiles when you're sitting on the
saddle while these partial cutout
Saddles have been described to reduce
pressure they've actually been shown in
studies to cause higher pressure in the
areas not of the cutouts so to the outer
genitalia so they might not be
beneficial number two stand forward
leaning and arrow riding positions can
actually also increase pressure on the
perineum so you want to take
intermittent rest periods or try to
stand about 20 percent of the time you
can also consider buying a recumbent
bike so you can recline while cycling
number three look where you set your
handlebar people who keep their
handlebar lower than their saddle have
been shown to be more likely to develop
numbness so try to keep your handlebar
at the same level or ideally higher than
your saddle and that's it cycling is an
excellent exercise and hopefully I
provided you with some information on
how to reduce any Urologic risks
associated with cycling if you found
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your friends also if you like this video
you might like my video on how your
brain can enhance your pleasure so make
sure to check that one out as always you
want to take care of yourself because
you are worth it