UKH

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I do 50 - 80 miles a week commuting and cycling around a city for work about 3-4 days a week. I typically wear work trousers as my day involves meetings and office.  

I have had some difficulty with an irritated perineum and urethra which has resulted in a lot of discomfort sometimes needing to pee 6 times an hour after a ride. 

I have recently switched to a cut out saddle like this:

https://www.specialized.com/gb/en/power-expert/p/155978?color=230517-155978 

This, standing up more when I ride and trying to centralise myself on the saddle has made a huge difference. I'm basically problem free, although this week after more cycling than usual I am starting to experience issues. 

I have previously visited the GP surgery and haven't found it especially helpful. Last time I couldn't get an appointment, they tend to want to test pee for infections/STIs prescribe drugs for things. Although one Dr said treating me for an infection was a mistake and he thought the issue was mechanical and I need to get my cycle set up sorted out. So here I am.

I was just interested to know if anyone else had similar problems and could advise anything? My bike seems to be the right size for me. I'm considering cycling shorts although these would need to go under my work trousers, any recommendations?  

Thanks in advance for any help.

TL;DR: Cycling is causing irritation and discomfort to my man plumbing and I'm looking for ideas to mitigate the problem. 

Go and get measured professionally for a saddle at a a good bike shop. I had similar issues and was willing to pay big for a good saddle. The best fit was a moderately hard saddle and one of the cheapest. It did the trick. I also found that  padded shorts seemed to ride up and add to the pressure on the Perineum, and now don't use them. Probably moderate your riding till things settle down too.

An adamo noseless saddle works for me

You haven't mentioned your bike style (road/hybrid/dutch etc)- it might be an unconventional saddle could suit you best or a weight-shifting bike set-up or even bicycle style.

There are padded 'liner' shorts that might be more suitable under trousers than full cycling shorts, eg..

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/dhb-padded-liner-shorts

Although wearing them all day under trousers might be a bit of a faff and daily washing a bind.

Have you tried using a smidge of chamois cream (antiseptic and anti-chafing) with a change of underwear for work?

First thing you should do is lower your saddle. Any saddle that's too high will cause the problems you are experiencing. Lower it by 1.5cm - which will feel like a lot - and see if it improves. Initially, as mentioned above, you'll feel irritated so it might not help straight away but should help within a week or so.

Bike fitting for years has been obsessed with raising saddles and it causes shedloads of problems. Running a saddle a tiny bit low causes basically no issues unless you run it really really low.

In my (limited) experience 'liner' shorts tend to be made with quite 'weak' materials and don't stay in the right place as well as proper cycling shorts. I'd stick to proper cycling shorts (Wiggle dhb brand is a reasonable place to start) and swap them for ordinary underwear at work (if you can). Also to avoid pressure in the wrong places, a hard(ish) saddle plus decent shorts are far more effective than a soft saddle - the hard saddle will put most of pressure on the sit-bones rather than on the surrounding tissue.

Have a look on YouTube as there are plenty of videos on bike set up and saddles but ultimately I'd say find a good shop with someone who knows what they are doing! It depends on your bike also....if it's a road frame it's likely that the pressure points will be different to something that's a bit more upright. With the best fit in the world though I couldn't do that kind of mileage without wearing cycling shorts....good luck.....the saddle fit is crucial!

Thanks for all the helpful replies. 

In reply to Basemetal:

I ride a hardtail mountain bike. 

Thanks for the recommendation on shorts.

I have tried creams before although I'm not having any problems with chafing.

Another vote for saddle height. I used to get all sorts of issues, lowered my saddle by 15mm and problems largely resolved. I also tilted my saddle forwards a tiny amount to reduce the 'crushing'. Good quality padded shorts also help. 

Could try flipping your stem as the extra height up front might shift your weight on the saddle more onto your sit bones rather than perineum. A shorter stem might also help this happen as well.

Clothing wise you can get trousers designed for cycling and use in office. Look at where seams are in your current underwear and trousers and where rubbing occurs. Consider where you could wear more suitable trousers for riding into your office then change when you get there / leave. Look at saddle setback and angle and height.  Your weight is distributed between your saddle, pedals and handlebars.  Consider if the balance is right and make sure you aren’t excessively tilting your hips as you pedal. Good luck.

Discomfort on a bike is miserable, particularly if it's affecting you off the bike too. Good shorts will help (particularly if you can get away with NOT wearing your work trousers over the top and therefore not creating pressure through an awkwardly placed seam) as will the right saddle. Unfortunately, both of these will be pretty specific to the individual so super specific advice here is not necessarily helpful. 

Having said that, I've recently had good experience with an SQ lab saddle. They  have about a million different models depending on style of riding, and each is available in loads of widths. You find the width you need by measuring your sit bone width and then adjusting depending on how upright or not you ride. Getting the width right means that you have the weight on your sit bones which un-weights the perineum - the saddles have a sort of bowl to facilitate this. It has worked for me this year and I've managed 170km and 250km day rides on it, without undue pain, and still being able to sit on the bike the next day!

As others have said though, bike position can be just as important, and it sounds like you might have found a saddle that works for you already. Play a bit with saddle height, forward/back position and tilt. Take your current position as a baseline and write down the changes you make and whether it's an improvement or not - that way you can reverse the changes if needed. Bike fitting can be done by trial and error, but keep in mind that some changes are counter intuitive e.g. some people with your issue find that a slight nose-up saddle position can help as it stops them sliding forward on the saddle, thus keeping them in the right place and the weight on their sit bones. I do something similar with a Brooks B17 saddle which I find very comfortable, unless I slide forward towards the nose which is essentially solid metal and causes nerve pain if I'm on that for any period of time. 

I found this guy really helpful for other bike fit issues, and I see he has an video on saddle selection too:  youtube.com/watch?v=zJ4-Cx5s1kE& (btw, he seems to be a big advocate of SQ lab saddles, I actually got mine before discovering his videos! )

Good luck! 

I’ve got a Brookes Flyer saddle that is super comfortable and doesn’t give me any discomfort unlike other saddles.  It’s the one with springs.

The other thing I was advised was to be very careful about saddle position - for me it works having it ever so slightly nose down, which relieves pressure on the perineum and thus my weight is better over the ischial tuberosities (‘sit bones’)

One thing to remember is that saddle choice and setup is more of an art than a science. A 'rule' that works for one person may not work for another. For example, the above nose down recommendation is good, but sometimes nose-up works better because it pushes you back onto the wider part of the saddle where it can support you better via the sit bones. It all depends on you and your saddle-of-the-day. As some engineer once said: "In theory, theory is better than practice, but in practice, practice trumps* theory." Or something like that. The point is that you should follow rule/theories up to a point, but also accept that sometimes you are one of the countless exceptions that "proves the rule". Good luck.

* Sorry about that ;-(

I'd echo the comments about saddle position and bike fit. If the top tube is too long, you will tend to move forward on the saddle, resting on the nose. You'll also get sore shoulders from over-reaching.

Get a shorter stem if you're over-reaching. Move the saddle forward. Drop the saddle; have someone watch you from behind as you pedal; if you rock from side to side, the saddle is likely too high.

You really want the weight on the 'sit bones' of the pelvis, resting on the broader, rear part of the saddle. You don't want weight resting on your gooch...

With the weekly miles you doing, I would think that you ought to consider a professional bike fit.  It's one thing to get the saddle in the right place but it also needs your hands in the right place in order to keep your pelvis in the right orientation.  That's related to you flexibility as well as your basic geometry.

My bike fit with BW Cycling cost £100 and I've never regretted it.

Check your bike fit, most fits will put your saddle too high.  There is loads of really good stuff out now, the guy cam Nichols??? on you tube had a bike fitter doing some q&a that was really good.

one simple test is if you can’t ride on your drops for 20 minutes without being very uncomfortable there is something wrong with your fit.

Right saddle as mentioned above is also important.

best of luck

Toby

I bought one of the SQ Lab saddles after using their fitting system - basically sit on a piece of corrugated cardboard, draw circles around your sit bones from the indentation made and then measure across. They ask for your preferred riding position ie race, touring etc. and then give you your size of saddle. 

Agree with this, I switched to a short saddle, best change I have ever made in terms of comfort.

Personally speaking cycling shorts are a band aid for poor fitting saddles.

I did years of uncomfortable saddles, just accepting that lightweight and comfort are mutually exclusive.

I eventually bought a Brooks saddle for a touring bike I built up. On the initial set up I found it to be the normal uncomfortable torture device I had been accustomed to, but with a bit of tweaking on the height and angle it was like a lazy boy arm chair.

Counter intuitively I ended up raising the nose, pushing me further back on the saddle. I did a 60+mile ride in a pair of jeans on a "quick" test ride, with no discomfort at all.