Dare I whisper the evil words: "try raising the bar an inch?"

Sometimes I do a fit with someone who *looks* like they should already be perfect. By every number, every chart, every angle - they should feel great and ride like the wind.

But they are miserable.

They are desperately trying to get their weight back (sometimes they think it's a saddle problem). They are having bad hand symptoms, neck pain, shoulder pain.

For whatever reason, sometimes the body just needs to come up at the front a smidge to allow it to work in its own unique happy place.

See if your LBS has some loaner stems, and try one with more rise? In any case, a stem is cheaper than buying a couple different bars to try. If your hands like feel of the bar before they start having trouble, I'd be blaming the placement rather than the bar. (generally if the bar shape is a problem, the suckage is pretty instantaneous) If you feel misery from the moment you start riding, you might want to do a bit of experimenting to see if the bar is just too "fat" at the diameter of your most efficient grip. Trying to hang onto an object that is too fat for optimal grip can wreak havoc, as anyone who has bought over-padded gloves has discovered.