Cycling is one of the exercises most people do. But can cycling actually affect your Sexual Function? Watch as Dr. Rena reveals ...

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You Won&#39;t Believe How Cycling Actually Affects Your Sex Life!

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 this video informative don't forget to subscribe and share this Channel with 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

Dr.

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