Prostatic Diseases and Male Voiding DysfunctionRigorous Bicycling Does Not Increase Serum Levels of Total and Free Prostate-specific Antigen (PSA), the Free/Total PSA Ratio, Gonadotropin Levels, or Uroflowmetric Parameters
Section snippets
Subjects
A total of 34 healthy male athletes from the National Cycling Team (on a training camp) were studied. Their mean age was 22.4 years (range, 16-41 years), and body mass index (BMI) 22 kg/m2 (range, 19.7-26.1), and they cycled 591 km/wk (range, 250-900 km) for an average of 8.7 years (range, 2-28 years).
The controls were 24 healthy, nonsmoker male student volunteers from university and medical staff who had not been involved in any intense sports training program for at least 1 year before the
Results
The athletes had cycled for a period of 2-28 years (mean 8.7 ± 6.3), covering 250-900 km/wk (mean 591.2 ± 225.4). As shown in Table 1, the 2 groups were well matched by age [mean, 22.4 years (range, 16-41 years) vs 24.4 years (range, 17-35 years). The BMI (mean, 22 kg/m2 [range, 19.75-26.15 kg/m2] vs 24.7 kg/m2 [range, 20.2-28.3 kg/m2], P = .001) was significantly less in the cyclists, as expected.
The control group had only baseline measurements and did not contribute to the postcycling part of
The Effect of Cycling on Serum PSA Levels
As known, factors affecting serum PSA levels may obscure the accuracy of PSA screening for prostate cancer. In this study, we examined the effect of cycling on serum PSA and hormone levels in normal, healthy subjects, with no evidence of benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer. We obtained baseline (precycling) and postcycling tPSA and fPSA levels and compared the baseline levels with the results of healthy noncycling subjects. In our study, the male athletes had been cycling for a
Conclusions
According to the results of our study, there is no effect of professional bicycle riding on serum total and free PSA levels and uroflowmetric parameters.
References (26)
- et al.
Bicycle riding and its relationship to the development of erectile dysfunction
J Urol.
(2004) - et al.
Bicycle riding has no important impact on total and free prostate-specific antigen serum levels in older men
Urology
(2003) - et al.
He sold his bike for a low prostate specific antigen
J Urol.
(1994) - et al.
Pituitary and gonadal function during physical exercise in the male rat
J Steroid Biochem.
(1990) - et al.
The vicious cycling: bicycling related urogenital disorders
Eur Urol.
(2005) - et al.
Physical activity releases prostate-specific antigen (PSA) from the prostate gland into blood and increases serum PSA concentrations
Clin Chem.
(1996) - et al.
The effect of bicycle riding on serum prostate specific antigen levels
J Urol.
(1996) - et al.
The response of sexual and stress hormones of male pro-cyclists during continuous intense competition
Int J Sports Med.
(2002) - et al.
The effects of exercise and activity on serum prostate specific antigen
J Urol.
(1987) - et al.
Short-term effect of digital rectal examination on serum prostate-specific antigen levels: a prospective study
Eur Urol.
(1996)
The effect of long-distance cycling on the prostate-specific antigen level
Arch Fam Med.
Case report: endurance cycle ride associated with a significant rise in PSA
Int Urol Nephrol.
Urethral strictures incident to bicycle motocross racing
Urology
Cited by (18)
Prostate-specific antigen kinetics contributes to decision making for biopsy referral: the predictive implication for PSA retest in patients with elevated PSA levels
2023, Prostate InternationalCitation Excerpt :Mechanical stimulation of the prostate is a generally accepted interfering factor for PSA measurement22 and long-distance bicycling is a typical activity to study the combined effect of mechanical prostate stimulation and intense endurance exercise.23 The results from the literature concerning the association between bicycling and PSA levels are inconsistent.24–28 Thus, Jiandani et al conducted a meta-analysis from 8 studies on this issue and demonstrated no significant increase in PSA associated with bicycling.29
Cycling-related sexual dysfunction in men and women: A review
2014, Sexual Medicine ReviewsCitation Excerpt :The differential reduction was insignificant between groups, and there were no observable differences between P, FSH, and LH. They concluded that long‐term racing may have a negative impact on circulating T and C levels in cyclists [32], a finding that has been corroborated in several other studies [33-35]. Despite these findings, the mechanism of the observed T decrease remains unclear.
Urological issues in cyclists
2022, Journal of Clinical UrologyIs cycling practice related to men’s pelvic floor dysfunctions? A hypothesis-generating observational study
2021, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public HealthRecommendations for the management of patients' preanalytical variables in Psa assessment for prostate cancer screening and follow-up
2020, Rivista Italiana della Medicina di Laboratorio
Tolga Saka and Mustafa Sofikerim contributed equally to this work.
Part of this study is accepted as an abstract for AUA Annual Meeting 2009, Chicago, IL.