Back in the 1990’s Dr. Irwin Goldstein, a urologist, made his infamous statement: “there are only two kinds of male cyclists – those who are impotent and those who will be impotent.”
It started the myth that biking would cause your dick to fall off.
There was absolutely no basis in the claim whatsoever. But like all zombie myths, it doesn’t go away. The NY Times, for example, has published a gazillion scaremongering articles. And it isn’t hard to see why journalists would run with such a story. Biking is a healthy activity, so nobody would expect it would cause impotence or bone loss.
Regrettably, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) got into the act. The agency, which protects workplace safety, issued official recommendations on bike saddles:
Over the last several years, NIOSH researchers have investigated the potential health effects of prolonged bicycling in police bicycle patrol units, including the possibility that some bicycle saddles exert excessive pressure on the urogenital area of cyclists, restricting blood flow to the genitals, resulting in adverse effects on sexual function. NIOSH worked with several police departments with bicycle patrols to conduct reproductive health research. In these studies NIOSH did more than assess a problem; it also tested a solution and published recommendations.
It is one thing for crackpot researchers and journalists to be making these wild claims. But when the US government is publishing official brochures, that is a big problem. Bicycling is a healthy activity, and the NIOSH should be encouraging workers to ride bikes instead of motor vehicles. One also wonders whether this will expose employers to frivolous lawsuits for providing bikes with the “wrong” saddle design at jobsites.
Systemic Failure 
I don’t see what’s wrong with encouraging healthier designs for saddles. Nader’s Unsafe At Any Speed didn’t stop people from driving, but it did lead to widespread deployment of effective seatbelts. Other forms of exercise also have potential for injury, but people still continue to do them with proper technique.
Ther e is a difference between being a bike cop on a saddle hours and hours a day and a person who rides an hour a day or rides to work. Let’s suggest some rational discussion here.
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