Hello,
I am a 25 year old Cat 2 who has been racing since the mid-90s. This past season I came back to racing after a few years off. During my hiatus I rode occasionally for fun.
In the past year I have had a few episodes that seemed like urinary tract infections (i.e. painful urination, the constant need to go but voiding little). However cultures of my urine and semen have always come up negative. My primary care doc diagnosed this as prostatitis and gave me some antibiotics and things usually cleared up. But the "infections" recurred and eventually a urologist found out I was retaining urine and, judging from the thickness of my bladder walls, had been for some time. A uroflow report also found that I was my flow was weak. The urologist then performed a cystoscopy and removed a stricture in the urinary tract near the base of the bladder. After the cystoscopy (and a wonderful 7 days with the foley catheter) I was
peeing like a firehose. With the doctor's OK I got back on the bike a week after the catheter came out, this time with a Terry Fly cut-out seat instead of the Bontrager I had been riding for years. I have ridden a bit since then (on the trainer and outside when the roads are OK) but in the past three weeks my urine stream has weakened a bit and a follow up test found I was still retaining urine. The urologist attributes this to cycling and the pressure the saddle puts on the perenium. Yet in all of my years riding I've never had any saddle discomfort.
Before operating again the urologist wants to wait another month to see if I'm still retaining urine. In the meantime I want to do some research. Has anyone else out there had this experience of cycling causing a stricture or urinary retention. If so can you tell me how you dealt with it?
Thanks.
I am a 25 year old Cat 2 who has been racing since the mid-90s. This past season I came back to racing after a few years off. During my hiatus I rode occasionally for fun.
In the past year I have had a few episodes that seemed like urinary tract infections (i.e. painful urination, the constant need to go but voiding little). However cultures of my urine and semen have always come up negative. My primary care doc diagnosed this as prostatitis and gave me some antibiotics and things usually cleared up. But the "infections" recurred and eventually a urologist found out I was retaining urine and, judging from the thickness of my bladder walls, had been for some time. A uroflow report also found that I was my flow was weak. The urologist then performed a cystoscopy and removed a stricture in the urinary tract near the base of the bladder. After the cystoscopy (and a wonderful 7 days with the foley catheter) I was
peeing like a firehose. With the doctor's OK I got back on the bike a week after the catheter came out, this time with a Terry Fly cut-out seat instead of the Bontrager I had been riding for years. I have ridden a bit since then (on the trainer and outside when the roads are OK) but in the past three weeks my urine stream has weakened a bit and a follow up test found I was still retaining urine. The urologist attributes this to cycling and the pressure the saddle puts on the perenium. Yet in all of my years riding I've never had any saddle discomfort.
Before operating again the urologist wants to wait another month to see if I'm still retaining urine. In the meantime I want to do some research. Has anyone else out there had this experience of cycling causing a stricture or urinary retention. If so can you tell me how you dealt with it?
Thanks.