The Monday Roundup: Prostate Health and more -...

Cycling Health Q&A: Prostate problems – time to talk about men’s health BikePortland.org

Men may be notoriously reticent to talk about their health – and even more so when it concerns the more personal areas of the body. But when it comes to cycling, people often infer an association between time in the saddle and prostate or urological issues. Consultant urological surgeon at London’s Kings College Hospital and The Prostate Centre(link is external) – and a keen cyclist himself - Christian Brown, tells us the truth about the link between cycling and men’s health.

road.cc: First of all, the big question: does cycling affect the risk of prostate cancer?

Christian Brown: Some years ago there was an article published that said the risk of prostate cancer in men who cycled regularly was higher than in those men who didn’t cycle regularly. However, this was bounced around a bit among my profession and it was essentially debunked. Cycling doesn’t cause prostate cancer.

However, the cohort of men that this article looked at - who cycled three times a week or who cycled more than 50km every week - did have a higher incidence of prostate cancer than men who didn’t cycle. We see these kinds of associations from time to time in medicine but there is no scientific link between cycling and prostate cancer.

In this study, the men who exercised regularly were more likely to go to a doctor to ask the question: ‘Am I alright?’ and then a small proportion had early curable cancer diagnosed. So we have to be careful about cause and association.

It’s interesting to note that in the same cohort, researchers also looked at infertility and erectile dysfunction and there was definitely no association between those issues and cycling.

So does cycling have any effect on prostate health?

In this case, I think you have to say yes. If you’ve got a tendency for any chronic issue with the prostate - particularly chronic pelvic pain syndromes and things like that - then the cycling position over the span of a long ride is not helpful. However, you can go some way to reduce it with effective padded saddles and shorts.

I think it’s also worthwhile explicitly saying that cycling has many more benefits than detrimental aspects to it, and cycling doesn’t actually cause these issues, but it can exacerbate them.

For instance, if you’re 55 or 60 years old and you have an enlarged prostate, riding your bike every weekend is not going to make that any bigger or smaller or cause you any more problems. But if you’re a young guy who gets a bit of prostatitis - or chronic pelvic pain syndrome as we call it now - then cycling can make it worse.

In my experience, some of these young guys who are keen on triathlons and do a lot of ultras and very long rides often say they really feel prostate pain the day after a big training session. But they live with it and it goes away, so it’s not debilitating.

Because of that slightly different nature of sitting on a saddle compared to a chair, can cycling highlight any early warnings of a prostate problem?

Not really, but the message to any man would be: whether you develop a new symptom cycling, or a new symptom sitting down or walking or wherever, you need to get it checked out.

Where cycling might help is that sometimes, when we’re doing things alone, we often think about things that we wouldn’t have chance to think about during normal busy daily life. So that’s when you might notice that something feels a little bit different.

As a general men’s health message, it’s noticing change that’s important. If something feels different compared with how it used to, then it’s worthwhile talking to your GP or a urologist about it, just in case it ends up being significant.

What specific symptoms should men be looking out for?

Generally, a change in the way you feel. The prostate is described as ...

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Fred
Thanks for sharing the link to the article about the potential link between prostate problems and cycling. I wish the article would make a distinction between regular upright bicycles and recumbent bicycles and tricycles. Many older men ride recumbents for this very reason: less pressure on the prostate and more comfortable longer rides (2-3 hours).

There are two shops in Portland (Recumbent PDX and Rose City Recumbents) dedicated to serving this population, so it’s a sizable group and you might want to check it out. Thanks.