Shorts Fit: What would you do?

[Owlie]

I ordered a pair of Primal Wear shorts recently. I'm in between a medium and large based on their charts: my hip measurement is 37.25. Their large is a 37.5 and the medium is a 36.5. Based on the advice to round down when it comes to shorts sizes, I ordered a medium.

Well...I can get into them. They fit okay in the hip, but they're quite snug in the leg off the bike (so who knows what it's going to do on the bike!) and at the waist.
Do you think I should switch them to a larger size even though, by the numbers, they'd be on the big side?

[OakLeaf]

Sit on your bike wearing them (over underwear). If you don't have a trainer, lean up against a wall. Pedal backwards just to get some leg movement. That usually gives me a good idea of whether the chamois is stretched too tight.

[Grits]

I know from experience that loose shorts are a pain - and even dangerous- when you take off and the waist gets caught on the front of your saddle!

Where does your waist measurement fall on the sizing chart? If it is borderline too, it might be that this brand just doesn't work for you.

[Owlie]

They're actually not uncomfortable on the trainer as far as the chamois is concerned. I wonder if these things were intended to be low rise, since if I stop trying to fight them over my illiac crest (or up to it!), they're fine to approximately mid-thigh--if slightly more compressive than my other shorts. (And a bit more difficult to get on). It does result in a rather unflattering muffin top, though it should be covered by a jersey anyway. (And I get that from my Castelli shorts, which otherwise fit pretty well.)

Actually looking at the shorts leads me to the low-rise conclusion, because there doesn't seem to be enough fabric to get there unless you're significantly shorter than me. But my old shorts are the same style, and they're normal-rise. (They are, however, an XL.)

Grits, by waist measurement, I'd be in an XL (at least, right now), but I've discovered that for most shorts, this is pretty much irrelevant.

My gut tells me to send them back; PW tends to run small (I'm pretty sure they design with a stick person in mind), and it's only a quarter inch!