Pudendal Nerve Entrapment / Cyclists syndrome!!!

jordanweeks

Hi Guys and Girls,

I have a quick question...

I have been mountain biking for over 10 years. no problems, but in late september invested in my first road bike (giant scr 3) I have been building up my mileage and pace steadily since, building on my fitness levels from 10 year MTB'ing.

Last month I started to get strange pains toward my coccyx area, spreading from the rectum through to genitals. The only way i can describe it is as though i need to go to the loo (not urination either).

I spoke with my gp who didnt really do anything to help or offer much in the way of advise, so i began traulling the internet for help. I came across a problem known as cyclists syndrome in which the Pudendal nerve gets trapped in the sitting area, and causes my symptoms...

I have just invested in a specialized body geometry alias saddle with the groove cut outs to help prevent or at least reduce pressure and increase blood flow to the areas affected, but was wandering if anyone else could shed any light on the problem for me, and if anyone else has had it or knows of any stretches which may help it to stop! or any bike set-up issues which may be wrong, such as reach etc?!

Its not too much fun long-distance cycling any more with a constant nagging muted ache!!!

I hope someone can help out,

Many thanks.

Cajun

Hope this site can offer some help:
http://www.answers.com/topic/pudendal-nerve-entrapment

claudb

I seem to have a similar problem but it is very difficult to diagnose with certainty.
I have had about 40 years in the saddle and for the last few had increasing discomfort on the left side of the perinuem. This quite suddenly got worse at the end of last year when I found I could barely sit down - not just on a bike - without quite severe pain of a prickly, burning nature. It was so bad I had to take to standing most of the time as the pain sometimes came on after only a few minutes sitting down. At it's worst the pain was accompanied by distinct reddening of the left side of the Scrotum and Penis. I too trawled the Internet and found many references to Pudendal Nerve problems (often referred to as 'Cyclists Syndrome'). In all my experience, though, I had never heard of one other cyclist with such problems. My Doctor arranged an MRI Scan as he thought it may be caused by a dodgy Disc but this proved negative so I visited a Physio who thought the problem was probably due to damage to the Pudendal nerve. He said he'd had 'one or two' long-time cyclists with similar. He is talking about 'Damage' over a period of time rather than 'Entrapment' and said it may heal to some extent given time - 6 months or more. I'm now about 4 months down the line and it is certainly improving but I have no thoughts of ever riding a bike again as I had briefly retired a couple of years ago anyway and was riding without any real conviction. As you have probably found there are various stretches suggested but I did not feel any of those helped which may be because my problem is not that the nerve is currently 'Entrapped', rather 'Damaged' over a long time. I hope it at least helps to know someone else has similar experience but all I can suggest is to be patient and hope for improvement in time.

KRISG19

Hi, this exact what I also got .
I'm now 6 years after the onset of pain and it is slowly getting better.

See here http://www.pudendalhope.org

I ride now on a recumbent bike which is great !

Gingerflash

I had similar problems a few years ago when I first took up road riding after years of mountain biking. I swapped from a Flite saddle to an SLR which helped a bit, then SLR to Toupe which has fixed the problem altogether. No problem now even when riding for 6 hours +.

gethmetal

I started having problems around ten months ago, difficulty urinating, discomfort in a variety of seating, 'burning' sensations and impotence. My GP was less than interested in serious diagnosis, but some online research proved very informative.
It ultimately led to me buying a saddle from http://www.rido-cyclesaddles.com/
After taking a couple of months off cycling, and getting back into it gradually there does seem to be continuing improvement in my symptoms.

Dante256

Hi, I know exactly what you mean.

I was cycling a lot, on a turbo on Zwift. Didn't really pay much attention to the tingling sensation "down stairs", until one day it didn't go away.

I swapped to the Rido Saddle and that helped a lot.

I did a review of the saddle, including the underlying medicine of pudendal nerve issues.

I'm cure early able to ride for about an hour now, and then get twinges so stop.

Here is the link to the review

http://www.titaniumgeek.com/gear-review ... -perineum/

Pross

Someone going for the longest ever thread resurrection?

tailwindhome

Pross wrote:

Someone going for the longest ever thread resurrection?

I don't think it's the thread needing resurrecting.

kingrollo

Horrible Injury - Can have life changing effects.

However it is pretty rare- I would say there are a whole host of things it could be before jumping onto PNE.

I don't usually advise bike fits, due to the daft prices, but £150 might be well spent to put PNE out of your mind.

Bolex

KRISG19 wrote:

Hi, this exact what I also got .
I'm now 6 years after the onset of pain and it is slowly getting better.

See here http://www.pudendalhope.org

I ride now on a recumbent bike which is great !

Sorry just seen this thread after having discomfort after ridding for two years and was wondering if you still ride a recumbant as thinking of getting one

sandyballs

Holy thread resurrection!

KRISG19, was active for exactly 1 minute in 2010 to post that and hasn’t been since since.

Good luck with getting a response.

kingrollo

Bolex wrote:

KRISG19 wrote:

Hi, this exact what I also got .
I'm now 6 years after the onset of pain and it is slowly getting better.

See here http://www.pudendalhope.org

I ride now on a recumbent bike which is great !

Sorry just seen this thread after having discomfort after ridding for two years and was wondering if you still ride a recumbant as thinking of getting one

I used to ride recumbent - let me know what info you want...