Hi! This one concerns a sensitive area of the body:
I wondered if any of you other female cyclists have experienced the following: a small, pea-sized cyst in the region that connects with the saddle.
My primary care physician thinks it's possibly a clogged sweat gland beneath the surface of the skin (a.k.a. Skeete's gland, or possibly even a Bartholin gland) and attributes it to my cycling. She said such a thing is benign, and I should only worry about it if it becomes considerably larger, because then it might have formed an abcess.
I'd like to continue my daily cycling, but this cyst is a little uncomfortable (doesn't really hurt) and I want to minimize the chances of getting more in the future. If any of you have had a similar problem, what did you do to alleviate it?
Did you change saddle (mine is women's specific, with a central cut-out and I actually like it), or just the saddle position, or did you try different types of cycling shorts?
If any of you are nurses or doctors, do you have any better suggestion than just taking a sitz bath when it flares up?
I'd appreciate any helpful feedback you might have. According to a web site I looked up (which says nothing about preventing such cysts), only about 2 % of women in the general population get such things. I wonder if the incidence is higher among cyclists, since we spend so much time in the saddle?
Thanks!
I wondered if any of you other female cyclists have experienced the following: a small, pea-sized cyst in the region that connects with the saddle.
My primary care physician thinks it's possibly a clogged sweat gland beneath the surface of the skin (a.k.a. Skeete's gland, or possibly even a Bartholin gland) and attributes it to my cycling. She said such a thing is benign, and I should only worry about it if it becomes considerably larger, because then it might have formed an abcess.
I'd like to continue my daily cycling, but this cyst is a little uncomfortable (doesn't really hurt) and I want to minimize the chances of getting more in the future. If any of you have had a similar problem, what did you do to alleviate it?
Did you change saddle (mine is women's specific, with a central cut-out and I actually like it), or just the saddle position, or did you try different types of cycling shorts?
If any of you are nurses or doctors, do you have any better suggestion than just taking a sitz bath when it flares up?
I'd appreciate any helpful feedback you might have. According to a web site I looked up (which says nothing about preventing such cysts), only about 2 % of women in the general population get such things. I wonder if the incidence is higher among cyclists, since we spend so much time in the saddle?
Thanks!