Zachariah Reitano and Jenna discuss how a life-threatening health scare at only 17-years-old planted the seed to launch Roman and empower men take long-term control of their health. We chat about the process of eroding and eventually breaking taboos, replacing men’s former health habits, often influenced by norms of toxic masculinity, with an open and proactive mindset, as well as the importance of raising awareness for and coming together around sexual health concerns rather than delegating topics like fertility or ED as ‘men’s issues’ and ‘women’s issues.’
Key Learnings and Highlights
- On starting with erectile dysfunction, which 52% of men experience: “ED is very frequently the first sign of a far more serious underlying condition, such as diabetes, heart disease, depression, high cholesterol, and more…Because it is such a big pain point for people and is also the earliest possible sign of something serious we thought it wast the perfect place to build a bond with men, start the dialogue and set them on a path to improving their overall health.”
- On the ripple effects of breaking taboos: “Stigmas exist for as long as we let them. They get broken-down by a-ha moments for the public.…When you give someone an incredibly valuable piece of information that changes the way they look at an entire situation you can put a stigma on it’s head by pointing out how ridiculous it is. That’s how we can get people to start having these conversations.”
- On being the first to speak up: “If sharing my story made someone anymore comfortable bringing it up to their partner or doctor then it was well worth it. That’s how we think about things: How can we get people in a position or environment where they feel far more comfortable bringing up their health concerns to the people they feel closest to?”
- On shifting from reactive to proactive healthcare: “To start a conversation with an individual you have to address the thing they care about most not the thing that might be most important from a medical perspective…We think about it as Day 1 and Day 2 in a patient’s life. Day 1 is the day that someone gets treatment and they can have that part of their life back. Day 2 is about making sure that someone needs less medication or might not need it at all. So, you start by working towards understanding the root cause of the issue to improve their overall health. You can’t get to Day 2 unless you solve Day 1…”
- On changing how we approach sexual health: “People often look at health issues [like ED, fertility, or birth control] as ‘Oh, this a man’s issue,’ or ‘This is a woman’s issue.’ That couldn’t be further from the truth. The more men and women fight together to improve these issues the better off we will all be.”