First lower your seat significantly. You’ll be surprised how much this helps and then you can gradually raise it once you are no longer getting sores. Bike fits do not guarantee you won’t get sores at least until you can ride enough to acclimate.
If it’s only moderately hard (squishy almost) then it very well could be a lipoma. If its very firm/hard, then it may be an “encapsulated” saddle sore…like a big cyst trapped under the skin. Either way, the best doc to look at that area would be a general surgeon. I hope you get relief from it.
Hey sorry, I saw this but had knee surgery last Monday, for the third time go me, and went braindead for the last week trying to not be in too much pain. I’m emailing you know.
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Here’s the thing if it’s what we are talking about there is no amount of seat moving that will fix it. I’m not kidding it was a gigantic solid mass that was sitting right under the skin. I’m a moron for not dealing with it earlier but I was also at the age of this is going to be really weird to ask about not realizing that for most general surgeons this is so far short of weird that it’s not a big deal. But I was a kid and didn’t know any better.
Don’t underestimate the power of lowering the seat significantly. I actually does cure most of these things, even if it does take time for them to heal. It’s not the cure-all, but it’s a really important first step if you feel one coming on, or if you’re actively recovering from one.
I think a lot of people here and elsewhere get a bike fit and assume everything will be perfect and that they’re just messing up their fit by lowering the seat, but that’s not the case. You need to lower it such that the pressure is altered enough so it can heal, and then you can raise it back up gradually to your bike fit position over time.
If you doubt this, go out right now, and drop your seat a good 3 cm. It’ll feel kinda ridiculous, like a low rider. Your legs/quads won’t be happy about it. But you’ll almost certainly be deloading that groin area and you’ll notice during the ride you’re not hitting that sore spot the same way you were.
I’ve tried multiple saddle sizes, even saddle covers, soft saddles, hard saddles, etc. They all caused saddle sores with a high seat position (even the cushiest ones - they flatten out and then you get problems with friction there). WIth the lowered seat, I can use literally anything. Really make be wonder if people are trying the wrong solution by spending hundreds of dollars on various saddles when the real issue is seat height (at least until they fully acclimate).
Okay gonna do this one more time. You’re not reading what I am saying. You’re making assumptions about what I had and what it sounds like he has, based on the fact that he’s talked to a couple doctors already, that are factually incorrect.
This is not a saddlesore. This was, for me at least, a non-cancerous hard mass of cells that was literally sitting right on my butt cheek where I sat on the saddle. It’s been awhile but the thing was like almost 2 inches by an inch that was well underneath the skin. Tape a few marbles to your butt where you sit on your saddle and then go ride. I don’t care where you put your saddle, this wasn’t comfortable. I don’t want to say it necessarily hurt but getting comfortable was impossible.
I read what you said. The point is the same.
If it’s a lump, ulcer, or sore spot that is contacting the saddle in any way, the first step is to lower the seat. It is almost guaranteed to help, if not cure the thing outright. This does NOT only apply to ‘saddle sores’.
What you describe about marbles on your butt is exactly what this seat lowering helps with.
You ride with this lowered saddle until its significantly better, then you raise it slowly (VERY slowly) back up.
I honestly don’t know why people are so resistant to trying this - it’s entirely free, and you can find out in 1-2 rides if it’s helping or not. If its not, ok, go for something else, but it’ll help it most cases. (Lower your seat to a low-rider BMX and you’ll almost be standing the entire ride, which will take most of the weight off the area.)
It’s like people are so insistent that they have to be right that they won’t even experiment with the easiest, FREE advice that many forumites swear by. It would be one thing if this was expensive, annoying, and hard, but it’s the easiest and almost smallest possible fix you could make.
I rack it up to that a lot of folks have spent $300+ on ‘professional bike fits’ so they assume everything is perfect. Sorry, doesn’t work that way for everyone.
Good lord, I may never ride a bike again after reading this thread.
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thanks mate, will try to get in and see one sooner rather than later - seems to be the way to go in my chats with Grantbot21 too. it is slightly squishy so probably just fat or similar, hopefully an easy job for the doc 
I don’t think you are understanding what @Grantbot21 is saying. What they are describing is not a saddle sore that can go away with time, bike fit changes or different saddles. I just had surgery to remove a mass from my perinuem that measured 9cm x 6cm x 4cm. This was causing me discomfort for several years and I’ve tried multiple bike fits, saddles etc. It took having a vasectomy and the urologist asking me about it to get it checked out. I thought it was something most cyclists experienced. I guess I was wrong!
For everyday saddle sores I’m sure lowering the saddle, adjusting the angle or trying a new one would help. For a mass that is built up in your body it definitely won’t.
Nope, I’m still understanding.
Look, if you have a TUMOR or GROWTH there that’s unrelated to cycling, you’re going to need surgery to remove it. 9cm is really big - that’s not a marble-like hard spot, that’s a grapefruit+ sized mass that’s alarming.
Hard marble-sized growths that occur with cycling more, are bike-related injuries or hard spots that lowering the saddle removes most of the pressure from, and allows them to heal.
If you’ve got a giant tumor in you’re groin, I have no idea why you’d come to Slowtwitch to ask how to cure it. You might have a tumor that may kill you there and common sense would dictate that cycling is the least of your concerns at this point.
Of all the threads to revive after The Snap, someone chose this one?
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Those taint boils aren’t going to lance themselves…
As I’ve said before, and probably too much: The rider/saddle interface is the MOST important of all … failure any of the others (feet/pedals, hands/bars, noggin/helmet) can be “endured” for a time, butt a problem in the undercarriage will ruin your day instantly, with potentially permanent consequences
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Thanks for your informed posts about this subject. I have been dealing with this same issue for a while and my doctor diagnosed a lipoma. However, given the location, he is not sure what kind of doctor would be the most appropriate to refer me to. Would you mind sharing what type of doctor did the surgery to remove it for you?
Whether its a lipoma or a boil, the best surgeon would be a general surgeon. They are well versed in taking care of colorectal disease and know the area “back there” very well. In addition, almost all general surgeons are good at removing “bumps and lumps” from all areas of the body (except maybe the face…plastic surgery in some situations).
I had a mass removed from my perineum and the surgery was performed by a urologist with a specialty in reconstructive urology.
A urologist is a good choice as well but it may be much harder to get in to see a urologist, for some people, because there is a big shortage of that specialty.
I know it’s a necrobump, but Fourniers gangrene is really common. I see cases of it several times a month at work. Usually we see it in the morbidly obese poorly controlled diabetic patients. I’ve never seen it in an otherwise healthy person though. The perineum is just about the dirtiest part of your body, you don’t want to be sticking a needle into an abscess or sore willy nilly.