Cycling: Para-cyclist calls for female-led saddle design after years of pain led to swollen vulva

Hannah Dines of Great Britain in action in the WT2 Road Race during the Road Race at the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championship in 2015. Photo / Getty

Paralympic cyclist Hannah Dines has called for more female input into designing bike saddles after suffering severe pain while training for more than five years.

Dines, who has cerebral palsy, needed surgery after the saddle on her trike bike caused damage and swelling to her vulva, the BBC reports.

"I had to go through several surgeries to try and alleviate the pain," she told BBC Radio Live.

"It's pretty frightening but at the same time I was having the time of my life and I thought maybe this is the sacrifice for sport that everyone talks about.

"The saying 'shut up legs' turned into 'shut up vulva' and I just thought that's how it was meant to be.

"Push through the pain to be stronger and fitter - but it's not good to ignore in this case."

Dines finished fifth at the Rio Paralympics and plans to qualify for the Toko Games.

She told the BBC that more work needs to go into designing female specific saddles.

There have been efforts to start designing seats better for women but there needs to be data from actual women - the way women [compared to men] sit when you go fast or when you're a racer, when you want to get aero and you're rotating really far down and holding on to handle bars really low...," she said.

"Get women in and create something brand new. I think that has to happen."