For some women, saddle pain is a pain they dare not speak up about. Women sit on it. This can cause pain, numbness, and sometimes physical damage.
Undercarriage issues
When a woman sits on a road racing bike saddle, even for sport or other non-competitive ridings, her vulva — which is not designed to carry weight — may need to hold up to 40 percent of her body weight. A few hours at a time. Part of the problem is that in order to adopt the most aerodynamic position, a woman’s vulva needs to be in the worst possible position. In my opinion, this is a serious problem.
Dr. Marsha Guess, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine, published a paper in the Journal of Sexual Medicine in 2006 titled “Genital Sensation and Sexual Function in Female Cyclists and Runners.” She compared competitive female cyclists with runners using quantitative sensory tests and found that cyclists who cycled more than 100 miles a week experienced a significant decrease in genital sensation and a significant increase in pain and numbness, leading to female sexual dysfunction in some.
If you’re new to cycling, or riding long distances, some pain is normal. (Some pain is normal if you sit on something hard for a long time.) But constant intense pain and soft tissue swelling are not. Cycling shouldn’t cause this pain, and if so, you can fix it by examining your saddle adjustments and saddle options.
What is the right saddle for you?
While it’s easy to choose a saddle based on personal recommendations from friends or club mates, this may not work due to anatomical differences we’ve discussed before. It’s best to try a few at a bike shop that offers a saddle trial service. Some will let you ride one saddle for a week or so, others will put you and your bike on a turbo trainer and let you ride a variety of saddles.
Find the right saddle and buy two. I often see people posting on the forums that they once had a perfect saddle, only to find that it’s no longer in production and they can’t find a new one.
How to set the saddle position properly?
- Saddle adjustment: height
The height of the saddle balances your weight between your three main points of contact: your feet, your hands, and your crotch. If the saddle is too low or too high, it will force the weight off your feet or hands and into your crotch. In general, you should bend your knees slightly when they are fully extended. Adjust the saddle height in small increments until you feel balanced between the three contact points.
- Saddle adjustment: tilt
Adjust the saddle to a neutral position. The nose should not be noticeably up or down. If you turn your nose up, you may dig into your soft tissue. If it is down, you can slide forward to the narrow end of the saddle. Leaning down can also put excessive pressure on the hand, leading to wrist pain.
Saddle adjustment: front/rear
You can measure this by placing your bike on a flat surface and dangling a vertical hammer from your knee to the pedal spindle. I spent hours in the parking lot with a homemade plumb hanging from my leg. Some people swear this way — I just swear when I try it.
