The association of bicycle related genital numbness and Sexual Health Inventory for Men Score (SHIM): results from a large, multinational, cross-sectional study

To assess the association of genital numbness and erectile dysfunction in male cyclists.

Cyclists were recruited through Facebook advertisements and outreach to sporting clubs. This is a secondary analysis of a larger epidemiologic population-based study that examined sexual and urinary wellness in athletes.

We queried cycling habits and erectile function using Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM).

A total of 2,774 male cyclists were included for the analysis. Among cyclists, there was a statistically significant increase in the trend of genital numbness presence with more years of cycling (p=0.002), more frequent weekly cycling (p<0.001), and longer cycling distance at each ride (p<0.001). Less frequent use of padded shorts (OR 0.14, p<0.001), lower handlebar (OR 0.49, p<0.001) were associated with numbness but BMI (OR 1.1, p=0.33) and age (OR 1.2, p=0.15) were not. In a multivariate logistic regression model, after adjusting for age, BMI, and lifetime miles (calculated by average daily cycling mileage x cycling days/week x cycling years.), there were no statistically significant differences in mean SHIM score between cyclists with and cyclists without numbness (20.3 vs. 20.2, p=0.83). Interestingly however, the subset of cyclists who reported numbness in the buttock reported statistically significantly worse SHIM (20.3 vs. 18.4, p<0.001). This association was not present in cyclists who reported numbness in the scrotum, penis, or perineum and remained significant after adjusting for overall biking intensity.

Cyclists report genital numbness in proportion with biking intensity but numbness is not associated with worse sexual function in this cohort. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

BJU international. 2018 May 23 [Epub ahead of print]

Nima Baradaran, Mohannad Awad, Thomas W Gaither, Kirkpatrick B Fergus, Benjamin E Cedars, Ashwin S Balakrishnan, Michael L Eisenberg, Tom Sanford, Benjamin N Breyer

Department of Urology, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, California., Department of Surgery, King Abdulaziz University, Rabigh, Saudi Arabia., Department of Urology, Stanford University School of Medicine, San Francisco, California.