Spokes Man for a Hard Problem; Men: The Scientific Truth; Scientific American Presents; by Mirsky; 2 Page(s)

To paraphrase the old song by Queen, "I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike. I want to ride my bicycle, but Irwin Goldstein doesn't like." Perhaps that's too strong. Goldstein, co-director of the Urology Research Laboratory at the Boston University School of Medicine, really has nothing against biking, although when I called him the first thing he said was, "I hope you're not biking." In fact, it is not the act of riding itself but the standard bike seat he has something against. He thinks that most men also have something against the seat-their perineum, the delicate area between the scrotum and the anus that contains the nerves and blood vessels that make erections possible.

Goldstein believes that conventional bicycle seats, with that narrow nose up front, may be making large numbers of men impotent by causing constant minor trauma to the perineum. He is on a crusade to arouse, if you will, what he calls "perineal phobia."