Ouch my lady bits!

[VeloVT]

Unfortunately finding the right saddle is a matter of trial and error. Once you've tried a few you get a better idea of specifically what you like and what you don't. My saddles, for instance, don't have cutouts, because I actually don't do well with cutouts (my bike has a fairly racy position and I end up getting bruised by the edge of the cutout). Also, I ride a fairly narrow saddle, even though I have wide hips (I've never measured my sit bones, per se, but I definitely have a woman's proportions -- narrow waist and wide hips -- I'm NOT one of those girls with boy hips that I've always been jealous of... oh well, being a fashion model was never one of my aspirations anyway ...). I've tried wider saddles that I just didn't like as well... This set-up works for me, but doesn't work for lots of people. And it's just hard to know until you try.

One of my local bike shops has a "cast-off" saddle bin. They sell saddles from people who've immediately swapped the stock saddle on their new bikes for something else. Since the shop sells high-end bikes, some of the saddles are pretty nice and they are sold at a HUGE discount. You might look into whether any of the shops near you do anything like this.

Also, if you can get past the embarrassment of asking, the folks at your bike shop may be able to really with saddles. Of course, it still comes down to experimenting and finding what works best for YOU, but they have seen lots of saddles and lots of riders -- and probably ridden quite a few saddles as well -- and they usually have at the very least some helpful advice!

There are bunches of saddle threads here too, and that may be useful as well. But you can't decide academically what's going to work for you -- you ultimately have to try a few.

Good luck!!! Saddle pain is no fun.