Topic
Share your erectile dysfunction stories
I have been married to a wonderful man for 26 years and we have 6 children, ages 25-10, and we are both 49 years old. We have embraced a life together that seeks to be healthy physically, mentally, and spiritually. Our intimate life together was a source of great joy in our marriage. My husband has always loved to ride his bicycle both for the pleasure it gives him and for exercise. He is thin, and had had no health problems up until last winter. He has always used his biking for commuting to work, and as he has had more free time, he had begun to pursue biking more seriously by doing group Century rides. Last winter, as he was training for a 100 mile bike ride, he began to experience erectile dysfunction. I remembered hearing that biking was associated with such problems, but the association was always presented in jest. I mentioned my concern to my husband, and he insisted that his biking could not be a source of the problem, because he had a seat that claimed to prevent such a problem: a nosed saddle with a split down the middle. I began to do research and came upon articles written by Dr. Goldstein, explaining that ED nearly always had a physiogical cause, and that biking more than three hours a week could compress the arteries that bring blood to the penis, resulting in either permanent or temporary impotence. Dr. Goldstein made it clear that if one experienced numbness or tingling in the groin while biking, damage was being done. (The arteries that bring blood flow to the penis sit right under the pelvic bones, and sitting on the bike saddle for extended periods of time compresses the arteries against the bones.) I asked my husband if he had experienced such a reality, and he admitted he had. He had never heard of an association between those symptoms and the damage that was being done, even though he had biked most of his life. I was very frustrated that my husband had never been warned of the potential danger. He was engaging in a recreational activity that he loved, thinking it was keeping him healthy. I read as much as I could on the subject, and noticed that the biking world responded very angrily towards Dr. Goldstein’s claim. The biking world either denied the claim that there was risk of ED because of biking or had the flippant attitude that biking was so wonderful in every other regard, so it was better to just keep on biking and use Viagra type drugs to solve the problem. My husband and I have been very blessed with good health, and have kept a drug free existence, drinking very little alcohol,not smoking, never taking recreational drugs, and hardly ever needing pharmaceutical drugs or doctors. The thought that we might need drugs to successfully resume what we had always taken for granted was and still is, quite traumatic for me. My husband was sure that his ED was temporary, and we kept hoping that time would heal the problem. He did agree to stay off his bike, but he was not convinced that it was the biking that caused the problem. We had our first contact with Dr. Goldstein in a telephone conversation, and he said that biking could be resumed, as long as my husband acquired a saddle that had no nose. Although my husband resumed bicycle commuting with a no nose saddle, it seems that the discovery was too late. After nearly a year of a huge amount of frustration in our intimate life, my husband agreed to get a diagnosis from Dr. Goldstein. There is nothing wrong with my husband except compressed arteries from biking, which could have easily been avoided if the biking world had just admitted the truth about the risks. We are deeply grateful for the work that Dr. Goldstein is doing and hope that the biking world finally listens to him. (While we were at his office there was also a young cyclist patient with the same problem. It breaks my heart to think of all the young people that are pursuing a sport they love that could so adversely impact their lives forever!)