The discomfort is typical. As far as saddles go, it's a personal preference but I think the most important thing is just getting used to the position. I like the Profile Design Tri Stryke but there are a number of others that are popular as well. Pick one and take smaller rides initially to adapt to the position change.

I also use the tri stryke and it made a HUGE difference - numbness and "most" of the discomfort have disappeared. I stopped using bike shorts (only using tri shorts) b/c I found there was almost too much padding w/ the saddle.

I just bought a Profile Design Tri Stryke seat - and while I haven't taken any long rides on it, it is comfortable and better than the road racing seat I previously had. I had a hard shell with no padding and it was very narrow. The Tri Stryke has a more padded wider nose which makes riding on the front of the seat more comfortable. The nice thing about the Stryke is that it can be used to hook the bike from the front or the rear onto most transition racks. My road seat didn't allow me to do that so I used my handlebar brake levers instead.

I had a Fizik and was very happy with it. Same with Specialized Trivent. The only probelm I'd have with putting a tri saddle on a road bike is that I am very uncomfortable sitting back on a tri saddle (I'd also be very uncomfortable sitting on the nose of a road saddle, though). I think if you put a tri saddle on a road bike, you'll lose some of the road usefulness. If you're only doing tri-type stuff on it, that shouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't like doing group rides on a tri saddle, though.