Bop Gun

and I'm an M.D. You learn something new every day.


https://www.velonews.com/article/1306...y-endofibrosis

urbanknight

Interesting. Don't tell my wife, as she's always looking for cycling related medical complications in an effort to scare me off the bike. The only one that might work is a low sperm count since we want children soon. Even then, I'll just reduce the mileage as needed.

LanceFanBoy

wow, that was an interesting read, if anything. Stuff like that is weird to read, it always leaves you wondering about yourself. oh well, i'll be fine :-P haha

Psimet2001 

Doesn't work. Rather it still DOES work.....

I found out the hard way.....

urbanknight

???
Are you saying I have nothing to worry about?

Psimet2001 

I am saying that I was hoping I would have a low sperm count from many years of riding. I found out, through rapid physical manifestation of a child, that I was not affected in the way I had hoped.

urbanknight

Ah gotcha. Thanks.

brians647

Yeah, at my wife's request, I asked the doc about how my boys would be affected by cycling. Bottom line, for the amount of riding that a weekend warrior like myself does - he's not too worried (10 or so hours/week).

urbanknight

Thanks guys. Sorry I derailled the thread. Back to the iliac artery endofibrosis.

dgasmd

+1!!

I found the following particularly interesting from the article:

I guess I should be happy I am too fat to be in an aerodynamic position! At least low enough to affect me I guess I am going to start recommending people to start flipping up their stems and add a few feet worth of spacers

Ralleh

I think the heat of cycling temporarily lowers sperm count, but it would only be a problem if you were copulating only right after riding. It'd be like only copulating after being in a jacuzzi.

As for the article, it sounds like you probably need a genetic predisposition and you have to be hunched way over like a pro a lot. My gut feeling (pun somewhat intended) was that that position was bad in some way, although I'm not too worried about the prospect of this.

bob the nailer

sounds like bogus to me, the femoral artery is what would actually be flexed during cycling motion-the external iliac is within the pelvis and therefore not moving during your cycling motion nearly as much as the femoral- and given the number of elite cyclists, three cases hardly represents an epidemic. i think most of us have much more to worry about as far as health if you stopped cycling.

DrPete 

The external iliac isn't truly within the pelvis--it overlies the psoas muscle, and as a result can definitely be moved. The internal is definitely a pelvic vessel, but the external stops a bit short. It's also much weaker-walled than the more tethered common iliac.

While it's not an epidemic by any stretch, it's definitely out there. Of course, I'm specializing in vascular surgery so these things are a bit nearer and dearer than to many. It's definitely an oddball disease process.

GatorFL

Actually, a friend just had the surgery a couple months ago.

bob the nailer

guess we will have to agree to disagree pete. the external iliac runs just above the obturator nerve, medial to the genitofemoral nerve, and as it crosses under the inguinal ligament becomes the femoral artery. That to me is the pelvis, thus the term pelvic lymph node dissection we commonly do for prostate and bladder cancer, which involves stripping the adventitia off of the external iliac artery and vein. the internal iliac turns dorsally and medially and gives branches to the buttocks, the bladder, prostate, rectum, penis, etc. i am not saying the external does not move but the major point of vascular stress would seem to me to be at the inguinal ligament where the external becomes the femoral- that does not seem to be the area of disease. In any case i think your average bike forums reader has nothing to worry about, at least from this particular problem.