I was looking for something else when my eye caught a link to the
article below.  This may or may not be of interest to this list, so I'm
passing it on without further comment.  The original location of the
article is
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:BPAGE41/1:BPAGE41022499.htm
l


George Pearson

Updated: Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1999 at 14:57 CST





Sleeping with the enemy: Do men have to choose between cycling and sex?
One physician says yes

By John M. Glionna
Los Angeles Times

For years, he was bicycling's version of the hard-working weekend
warrior, venturing out Sunday mornings for a huff-and-puff along the
coast and a first-hand look at the spectacular scenery right there
beyond his own back yard in Palos Verdes, Calif.


Still, with each 30-mile ride came the nagging tingle and numbness in
his groin -- troubling symptoms he rationalized away as the devil's due
for a middle-aged man pedaling hard to stay in shape.

Soon, however, his problems moved from the bicycle to the bedroom. After
his wife made gentle comments about his performance, the 59-year-old
professor finally confronted a no-win choice: sex or cycling.

"I was fairly depressed about the whole thing," said the educator, who
asked that his name not be used. "I thought, `Here I am, trying to stay
healthy, and now I have to deal with this little side effect.' After so
many years, bicycling had become an addictive part of my life, and
suddenly I was at a point where I had to choose.

"I certainly wasn't going to give up my sex life, but I also sure hated
to give up bicycling."

He quit cycling temporarily and consulted a specialist. A year later,
with new biking equipment and regular doses of Viagra, he's back at both
pastimes with gusto.

The professor is one of a growing number of enthusiasts to experience a
medical condition that for years has been secreted away in the closet of
the bicycling community -- the possibility that riding a bike can cause
sexual impotence in men.

Two years ago, noted Boston urologist Irwin Goldstein shook the cycling
world with new -- and immediately challenged -- claims of the sport's
ill effects. Regular riding placed undue weight on the arteries and
nerves that feed the male reproductive system, he said, restricting
critical blood vessels and causing possibly permanent damage.

His conclusions were no-nonsense: More than 100,000 American men had
been left permanently impotent from cycling. And the phenomenon troubled
more than just cycling's "Tour de France crowd" -- the dedicated
habitual road rider -- but affected mountain bikers, stationary bike
riders, even young novices.

The trouble, Goldstein said, wasn't so much the perilous support bar on
men's bikes as the innocuous seat -- especially those narrow racing
saddles with the elongated nose that he claims put dangerous pressure
where it was never intended.

Furthermore, the doctor said, there were but two types of cyclists --
those who were already impotent and those who would eventually become
so.

Two years later, Goldstein has given little ground.

"Every single day I sit in a chair and I face people who were made
impotent, whose only crime in life is that they rode one of these
objects. They're men in their 20s and 30s, and their lives have now been
made miserable,' " Goldstein said.

Goldstein's warnings have been both heralded and dismissed across all
corners of the bicycling and medical communities. The bicycle seat
industry has invested millions designing and manufacturing ergonomically
correct saddles that the companies say solve the problem.

But many doctors question whether that's necessary.

"I'm unconvinced that bicycling, for the vast majority of men, is an
important cause of impotence or erectile dysfunction," said Dr. Harin
Padma-Nathan, director of the Male Clinic in Beverly Hills, Calif.

"Will biking cause impotence for the average cyclist, and does that risk
outweigh the sport's cardiovascular benefits?" he asked. "I think the
answer is `no' on both counts."

Nevertheless, some dealers say the issue has already driven newcomers
from the sport and has caused advocates to think twice about their
pedaling pursuits.

"People are beginning to avoid the sport -- they're saying, `Gee, maybe
I should try golf or bowling instead,' " said Alan Goldsmith, owner of
Supergo Bike stores of Santa Monica and Fountain Valley, which are among
the largest cycling retailers in California.

Goldstein's studies are not the first to look at the connection between
cycling and impotence. Since 1974, numerous case reports and small
published studies worldwide have suggested a relationship between
bicycle seats and restricted blood flow to male sexual organs.

But once Goldstein -- a nationally recognized authority on male
impotence -- began making such dire predictions, people began to take
notice, said Dr. Roger Minkow, a physician, product designer and
bicyclist from Petaluma, Calif.

"As a result, most people have come to the conclusion that there is a
problem," Minkow said. "But most physicians believe the trouble is
mostly pain and numbness and, to some small degree, impotence.

"Goldstein has gone in the other direction, saying all these tens of
thousands of men are already impotent. Those high numbers of impotent
men -- that's where the controversy lies."

Like so many others, Minkow saw the August 1997 issue of Bicycling
magazine detailing the connection between cycling and impotence.

But Minkow, 52, did something about it.

He began drawing up plans for a new type of bicycle seat that would
relieve the pressure on nerves and blood vessels during extended rides.

His finished product, called the Minkow Wedge, is a Y-shaped saddle with
the rear portion removed to reduce pressure on critical arteries.

Minkow's seat is among a host of new products designed to offer
protection to male cyclists. There are gel-filled seats and seats with
cutout holes, and protective biking shorts.

The rush of new products is part of an entire new market in the industry
-- ergonomic equipment.

"At first I thought the impotence thing was overrated, but I'm seeing
the positive fallout," said Geoff Drake, editor of Santa Cruz,
Calif.-based Bicycling magazine. "Now it's incumbent on every
saddle-maker to consider the human anatomy when designing their
product."

Minkow and Stanford University urologist Robert Kessler recently studied
25 men, ages 27 to 62, who suffer from bicycle-related medical problems.
Of those men, nine complained of erectile dysfunction that lasted
anywhere from one month to more than a year.

Although Kessler disagrees with Goldstein's estimate of the number of
U.S. men suffering from bicycling-induced impotence, he acknowledged
that a small percentage of cyclists do progress to complete erectile
dysfunction.

For the rest, it's more of a minor discomfort.

"As many as 20 percent of men who ride more than six hours a week suffer
some numbness -- and some doctors predict as many as 50 percent,"
Kessler said. "The problem occurs not only after greater number of hours
ridden weekly, but also after longer single rides."

Send your comments to features@...


------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/mvbc
Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com