"Male Cyclists Should Stand on the Pedals Every 10 Minutes to Avoid Erectile Dysfunction"

richtea99

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 8, 2020
441
285
The title is the catchy conclusion (as evidenced by the Mail, Record and Men's Health being quoted as opposed to the actual paper). The paper only says it 'might' help.

The stronger conclusion is a no-nose saddle is better than standing every 10 minutes. And 10 minutes wasn't scienticifally proven - it's just a guess.

Nonetheless the recommendations are worth noting, and standing once in a while is easy to do.

Here's the Results & Conclusions from the paper [my highlight in italics]:

Results
Out of 2217 screened studies, 22 met our inclusion criteria, and 6 qualified for meta-analysis. The strategies included various designs of saddles, changes in the cycling position, seat shock absorber, shorts with different padding, using the recumbent bike. Using the no-nose saddle and recumbent bike resulted in a significant reduction of perineal pressure and higher penile oxygen pressure compared with a standard saddle. Indirect evidence supports the protective effect of standing on the pedals every few minutes during cycling. More evidence is needed to support—or dismiss—other strategies.

Conclusions
Current evidence supports the use of no-nose saddles as a mean to reduce the negative impact of cycling on the perineum in healthy males at the cost of worse stability and increase of posterior seat pressure. Standing on the pedals every ten minutes might be an effective and potentially widely applicable strategy. The use of a recumbent bike appears to protect the perineum, but several concerns prevent its widespread use.