On Sat, 28 Jul 2018 12:48:03 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On Friday I talked to a woman who rides very little because the saddle
causes her pain after a short time. Most likely this is a combination of
factors, the hardness of usual road bike saddles plus the fact that road
bikes have no suspension whatsoever and hard tires.

MTB saddles are often a little cushier. Then there are thud-buster type
systems but that's more for hard MTB riding which she doesn't do. Maybe
there are similar systems for road bikes?

Are there recommendations what could be done without breaking the bank
and without switching to a slow beach cruiser?

Probably not. I think that most people that ride very much have a
whole drawer full of saddles that didn't work. My most favored saddle
is very hard but contoured. Changing to a similar saddle with more
padding and a bit less contour is far less comfortable.

Leather saddles are expensive and heavy and initially very, very,
uncomfortable but once broken (molded to your butt) very comfortable.