It's been suggested that numbness in your hands can be due to pressure on the ulnar nerve. The best way to get around this is to get some decent cycling gloves (there's an earlier thread on this forum that also recommends this). Personally I can recommend the Specialised Body Geometry range - they've got nice padded bits on your palm that ease the pressure and the numbness... Check out the women's section on this web-site http://www.specialized.com