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So, This Was A Bit Titillating!


Razors Edge

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And it was the title that roped me in!  Could have done with some better visuals, but overall good story.

‘I had a huge swelling’: why my life as a female cyclist led to vulva surgery

The plastic surgeon, in that particularly endearing way of surgeons, was trying to reassure me that although he had never operated on an endurance cyclist before, he had seen “presentations” like mine. “I’ve seen chronic inflammation and long-term trauma to the vulva like this. You know …” he paused, “in patients who compulsively rub up against bedposts.” Silence.

I decided against explaining that the relationship with my bike saddle did not, perhaps, deserve to be in among the psychiatric cases in his cognitive filing system. However, he had a point. While there is no love lost between me and the necessary evil that is my saddle, I have continued to train, despite huge amounts of destruction to my body, pain and trauma.

...

When should I have sought help? At the first sign of swelling? That was when I was a potential talent trying out for the British Cycling team in 2014, staring at the large amount of skin and hair that had just sloughed off my vulva in a hotel bathroom. Fortuitously, I was on the toilet at the time. This is not as painful as it sounds: if you dry out too much down there due to chafing, this is generally what happens. I wish I could time travel and yell “chamois cream” at myself. British Cycling gave us great kit – nice shorts, shoes, gloves, but no anti-abrasion ointment, no medical chat about the dangers of chafing our cha-chas out of existence. The message was: show weakness and you’re out. I pulled up my knickers and flushed it all away.

The consensus is that when you first start cycling on your good-as-new, unbruised foof, it is going to hurt. After a “breaking-in” period, the pain-to-numbness ratio becomes favourable: as long as you protect against infection, wear padded shorts with a generous layer of chamois cream, no underwear and make regular offerings to the ingrown hair goddess, things are manageable. This is wrong.

While valuable parts of the male genitalia can be moved out of the way, female cyclists sit right on the money.

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1 minute ago, Longjohn said:

Might have to move this to P&R to get DH to weigh in on it. She seems to have found a new home.

I threw in a Shralp that might grab her attention.  If not, maybe if she gets sassy in the P&R on a topic, I will ask if she is irritated over something :D

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