Issues with Hand Pain - not sure what to do?!?

[Crankin]

The horrible pain I had in my hands when I started cycling was purely from gloves with gel pads. I cannot take even the tiniest amount of padding or gel in my gloves. It is very hard to find gloves with hardly any!

[Seal]

You might want to try a horseback riding store to find gloves w/out gel. They will probably be spendy and have fingers but no gel.

[kenyonchris]

You might want to try a horseback riding store to find gloves w/out gel. They will probably be spendy and have fingers but no gel.

Riding gloves may work, but you might find them too restrictive. The hand position for riding a bike is more open than holding a rein. And, because of the need for riding gloves to take a lot of friction and abuse, they tend to be pretty thick and reinforced in the finger area.
I don't like any gel under my bar tape, and I don't like cycling gloves because of the gel pads in them. I am a full body sweater and that includes my hands and arms...the gel pads wind up creasing in weird ways.
The best I found were driving gloves. They are much, much thinner than riding gloves without the reinforcements that come with riding gloves. They are pricey, tho.

[mtbdarby]

Here's just an alternative thought for those that do have the bike dialed in and still get hand pain. C7. I had a LOT of hand pain after a road crash a couple years ago and had my bike dialed in, went to PT, orthopedic hand dr., cortizone injection, etc. Then I went to my chiropractor. After an adjustment to my neck the swelling in my hand went away and so did the hand pain. FWIW...