Serious question - Men's health and unicycling.

General
1

Last month I was taken ill with Prostatitis - An inflamation/infection of the Prostate Gland. I was pretty sick with this, fever/chills, headaches, contant dull pain in the lower back, difficulty taking a pee (very slow) and servere fatigue.

After tests doctors found I have a very high PSA (Prostate-specific antigen) reading of 15ng/mL over the normal level of 0-2ng/mL, or 0.5ng/mL for someone of my age, 30yrs old. A course of antibiotics was prescribed for a month and come the begining of this month I felt fine. My GP was very worried as a person of my age shouldnā€™t have prostate issues and thereā€™s always the worry of the ā€˜Cā€™ word so I was sent to a specialist. The latest PSA test still showed a level of 4.7ng/mL, which is still too high.

Now, could this be related to Unicycling? Iā€™ve only been riding a unicycle 5 months, but itā€™s a whole load of pressure in that area. Iā€™ve read about cyclists having cases of Prostatitis, and recently motorcyclists, but suprisingly thereā€™s very little information (none) on the rare breed of us unicyclists!

The specialist told me to stop riding my unicycle for now, after finding it highly amusing! Though he would like me to find further info if a I can. This is where you guys come in.

Has anyone suffered from any of the following since they started unicycling -

Prostatitis, high PSA count?

Pains/ aches to the lower back? testicles? (this doesnā€™t include suicide mounts!!)

Sweats - fever/chills? Headaches?

Fatigue? (not being tired from riding a heroic distance!)

Decreased urine flow? incontinence?

Any other infoā€¦

Thanks for you assistance. I do hope itā€™s not the unicycling thatā€™s caused it as itā€™s really good fun and learning new stuff is a great challenge.

Jon

*you may want to post as guest (is this possible?) or PM me your answers.

2

One third weight on the pedals?

When I started unicycling I weighed 107 kilos/235 pounds.
At first I had big problems with bruises and blisters at the very tops of my thighs where my weight sits. The bruises went away when I learned to balance and stopped doing the thighgrip of death on the seat. The blisters got lots better when I bought a Kris Holm seat.
My weight dropped to 93 kilos/ 204 pounds after three months or so, but I still had regular problems with bruising and strain in the prostate area.
Most of the incomplete solution for me was some of Andrew_Carterā€™s advice, ā€œkeep one-third of your weight on the pedalsā€. Thatā€™s a lot more work than keeping my weight on the uni, maybe because I weight more than most unicyclists? Anyway, the bruising and strain has almost disappeared and my legs are far more muscular!
Iā€™ve started gaining weight again, but now itā€™s only muscle. My 22 years of programming experience is no longer obvious! :slight_smile:

As for the symptoms you asked about, I have had testicle pain when I rode more than two hours every day, no clue about my PSA count. I have had decreased urine flow during the two plus hours each day binge. Since then I decided to cut down on unicycling and practice keeping one-third of my weight on the pedals always. I still canā€™t keep it up for more than 45 minutes or so, but Iā€™m getting better.

3

Iā€™d love to have a commend of Kris Holm in here, heā€™s one of the Unicyclists who rode like forever, and heā€™s in the ā€˜criticalā€™ age I would say (no offense on that, Kris).

Iā€™m only riding about 8 Months now, and so far, no problems. Whereas I donā€™t do long distance, so I get out of my saddle very often, which makes my blood flowā€¦

Nevertheless: Iā€™m concerned about fertility and health. Iā€™m addicted, but I donā€™t want to end up not being able to pee anymoreā€¦

wogri

4

It sounds odd that you should develop a medical problem like that in only 5 months, but if cycling can cause prostatitis unicycling can too.
I havenā€™t heard of any cases of prostatitis among unicyclists, but thanks for the warning.

I hope it goes away soon. Otherwise itā€™s time for seat out skills and an ultimate- or bc-wheel.

5

mens health

yes swollen ball not both but one. lots of the same symptems here. maybe a doctor visit is needed

6

Iā€™m in my early 40s, have ridden for about 10 years, though only the last 4 years for any distance/muni. I hadnā€™t considered prostate problems as a result of unicycling and havenā€™t noticed any of the symptoms you mention.

I have no medical training, but if you were prescribed antibiotics Jonjon, then presumably that was because of a bacterial infection and I donā€™t see how an infection could have resulted from sitting on a saddle, bruising maybe, but not infection - any insights or enlightenment from anyone with medical knowledge/experience of male problems would be welcome.

I have wondered about reduced infertility due to:

a) Damage to testes from accidental sitting on them or overheating on long rides (nut roast).

b) damage to blood vessels that feed the errectile function, which the cycling community seem to have taken on board with the design of male friendly saddles, i.e cutaway at the area of contact with the perineum and base of the pen1s.

Personally I discount a) because I have 4 fit & healthy kids and have been firing blanks for several years now anyway. You younger riders may want to bear it in mind i.e. suicide mount with care and take regular cooling breaks on long rides; I guess wearing padded cycle shorts may help with the former, but hinder the latter.

I also am not overly concerned about b) because I have been married for 20 years already and loss of errectile function, though it would be missed, I could live (and ride unicycles) without - thereā€™s always Viagra if one gets lucky ;). It hasnā€™t happened yet, the loss of function :smiley: or the getting lucky :(. I must try cutting away some of the front middle padding on the seat on my Coker uni, a la male friendly cycle saddle style, or it would be easy to leave a lengthwise gap between the folds of the innertube on an airseat - hmmmm, I feel a session in the workshop coming on.

Thanks Jonjon for raising the issue - those girlies have it easy, eh !

Chris

7

I did a school report on this smae thing but on bikes. you shouldnt unicycle more than ten hours a day

8

what a brilliant quote! :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Actually, the rubbing, or, chaffing, from the seat, does create open wounds, although not any more then the first layer of skin, wounds none the less, which could get infected, and spread to the scrotum, or depending on how you sit start directly at the scrotum, as for infertility, I donā€™t think pressure plays much of a role, I learned to sit in a position that was kind to my man package within the first day of ridding, although accidents do happen sometimes, no more often then other sports where you sit on a seat, motocross, bmx, but the heat could cause a infertility problem, I even read that men that use laptops often may have infertility problems, because of the emense heat on there laps, I live in a reletivly cold climent so I donā€™t really have to worrie to much exept durring the summer I suppose, but I think the moral of this story, is to wear something that circulates air well, and will slide easily, along your legs to prevent chaffing, so once again we look the the bike shorts, although iā€™d never wear a pair, they make you look like a queer.

P.S. if you live in florida, use a laptop often, and ride a uni, your screwed. But for the rest of us, BE FREE AND PROPOGATE ON OUR UNIā€™S!

10

This is the first Iā€™ve heard of this medcal issue in relation to unicycling. For the most part, I think youā€™re just unlucky, though the unicycle could have been a contributing factor.

For the people who have had actual erectile dysfunction and other medical issues from cycling, generally they are the ones putting in several hours a day in the saddle. If you havenā€™t been riding several hours every day, you are unlikely to be susceptible there.

But as a relatively new rider (only 5 months) you are still learning lots of new things, which can mean lots of legs clamping the seat, high energy for low output, and general greater abuse to your body than when you get more set in your ways.

Tell us about your seat and riding habits. What kind of seat, what kind of riding do you do, hours per day, etc.?

None of us are medical professionals. But if I had to guess, itā€™s possible the unicycle contributed to a bacterial infection that occurred through whatever means. Or, if you donā€™t wash your shorts enough, unicycling could have contributed to that as wellā€¦

11

Re: One third weight on the pedals?

Not Bad!:wink: Of course he was asking about your prostrate, not your sex life.:smiley:

Just curious, what kind of shape is your doctor in? Every out of shape, overweight, poor excuse for a ā€œHealth Proffesionalā€ that I have ever seen makes the suggestion that some exercise I am doing should be eliminated. I chalk it up to misery loves company. I then tell them ā€œThatā€™s not what my Pharmasist sayā€™s to do.ā€ or something like ā€œOn the internet it sayā€™sā€¦ā€

12

Huh?!? How do they do that? They may make it easier to tell if youā€™ve been circumcised, but thatā€™s more related to religious affiliation than sexual orientation.

13

I wear bike shorts under normal shorts. You donā€™t see them, and theyā€™re very comfortable.

Andrew

1 Like
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i had a pair that were made shoddily and wore through where my junk was resting(just above the pad) when the light hit it just right it was about invisible. my girlfriend and rideing partners donā€™t let me wear those shorts anymore for biking or uni.

i think you must just be unlucky, especially after only 5 months. i doubt the unicycle is much of a factor if at all. i think its similar to cycling in that if you have a good seat and know how to sit on it so you donā€™t go numb/get really sore in the package area you should be fine. i mean, greg lemond his soemthing like 4 kids and heā€™s spent more time on the bike in his life than most of us put together.

15

If it was something bacterial then you just gotta change your shorts and underwear more frequently and wash them well.

But for the other issues, I guess some people are more prone to these problems than others i.e. some sort of genetic predisposition. I do get a bit of pain once in a while but nothing serious yet.

Some people recomend taking more breaks when you ride but I find that hard especially when youā€™re chasing down a PB. But since Iā€™ve started riding longer distances Iā€™ve switched to boxers for the rest of the day. Plus for people worried about becoming sterile I would suggest making a donation in a sperm bank, just in caseā€¦

16

Re: Serious question - Menā€™s health and unicycling.

There have been threads about this serious issue before. Some of them
are listed at
<http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=97745&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending>.
Not all of them are specifically on this topic (e.g. the first one)
but some carry appropriate information.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict

Itā€™s impossible to get old when you ride a unicycle - John (whatā€™s in a name) Childs

17

Observationā€¦

I am in a process of prostate cancer scare.My medical colleague stuck fingre in my behind and INSTANTLY ordered all investigations including prostate biopsy.I had a grant to became urologist and did 6 moths intensive training as already qualified general surgeon./ I did try it (urology) to please my father as he was prominent urologist./ I could not develope affinity to this specialty so I left and continued to do trouma-orthopeadics.

The above did not prevent me from experiencing (manually only) numerous male rectums- prostate included. Some of them(prostates) loaded with abnormal additions(cancer lumps).

It was why I have instructed my lady friend to examine me ,having given her istructionsā€¦The prostate was smooth.

So far all other examination results came negative BUT biopsy, results of which I will get on 27.01.05.

The biopsy involves some 8-10 punch-stub wounds in the prostate some 4mm in diameter delivered by 'air gunā€™under ultra sound inspection.I HAVE BEEN ON UNI 8 DAYS AFTER THE ABOVE- NO PROBLEMS AND NO AGGRAVATION. So I have my doubts about,
moderate, uniing doing a lot of bad to the prostate.
Certainly excessive weight of rider and long distaces may cause agro.(ā€˜Nature agrees with moderationā€™)
I hope my biopsy will be OK.:wink:

18

I still donā€™t see how a skin infection might spread to the prostate gland ! The original postee didnā€™t mention saddle abrasion or any resulting skin infection.

I would have thought the prostate gland is pretty well padded up there, with quite a bit of pelvic floor muscle, colon etc. between it and the saddle. Those of us whoā€™s 9 to 5 require us to sit 8hrs a day on our arses must put at least as much pressure on the prostate as a few hours unicycling a week.

Recent scientific studies, reported in New Scientist among others, but I donā€™t have the references to hand ( appropriately phrased, though I say so myself ), recommend regular evacuation of the prostate to help maintain prostate health - Iā€™m all for that approach rather than give up or cut down on unicycling :smiley:

Chris

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Ive been riding over 4 1/2 yrs. I did long distance and all the types of riding and have never had a problem (exept for the rare nutting of missing a trick). although my friend accross the street who started 9 mo. ago had a similar problem, but got it from landing whrong on my mountain bike. I Donā€™t think many people get the problem from unicyclig cause the saddles are a lot softer and better shaped tahn the cruel bike saddles.