This app wants to know everytime you wake up with a hard-on

We show pride in him when he rises up to the occasion when required but nothing in the English Language can describe the pain and disappointment that comes when he chooses to stay asleep when he’s needed.

This occurrence is often a case of Erectile Dysfunction (ED), a disease that is said to be present in over 50% of all men of all ages.

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This disproves the popular belief that ED is an old man's problem and it is a reality that 26-year-old Michael Reitano is very familiar with.

Reitano first discovered he had ED when he was in high school. Many cases of ED are linked to heart disease, and he found out over time that he was one of them.

Learning about and living with the condition inspired Reitano to build a company that fights erectile dysfunction and spreads the right information about the condition.

Living with Erectile Dysfunction

ED is a lifelong condition, however, treatment exists in the form of drugs that ease its symptoms. The most common of these drugs are Viagra and Cialis, pills that most men associate with prolonged sexual performance.

Here at home, this has resulted in people hunting for the drug in a bid to impress their partners.

The Nigerian drug market is flooded with counterfeit and sub-standard versions of any heavily-demanded drug.

At every bus-stop in Lagos, for instance, you will find men with drug shelves peddling performance-enhancing drugs.

For people with ED and those looking to score points, there is a massive risk of buying fake drugs is immensely high.

We must also talk about the locally-produced traditional performance enhancing drugs.

Herbalists and random salesmen peddle all forms of herbs, roots and potions that are supposed to provide treatment and succour for persons with sexual performance problems.

Some of the "arrangements" provide some sort of relief but they are not treatments for ED. That's not even counting the fact that you have no idea what Dr. Poki Poki has mixed together to make his super herbal mixture.

Reitano founded a startup with teammates, Saman Rahmanian and Rob Schutz called “Roman”.

Morning wood is good

The company delivers online diagnosis and ships safe, legal medication for erectile dysfunction. It’s basically viagra on demand.

But the very interesting part of their work is the new app that wants to know if your little man wakes up with you in the morning.

Naturally, when men wake from sleep, their little men wake up with them. This is seen as a signal of good overall health.

People with ED do not enjoy this luxury. And because they don’t know the signs, many people tend to disregard it.

Reitano’s app is titled Morning Glory and it uses leisurely activities to introduce men to the topic of ED.

One of the activities is that when men wake up, they have to open the app and tell it if they woke with or without morning wood.

Obviously, this is one app that doesn’t mind its business.

Here’s how it works: If you get a boner for three days in a row, the app appreciates you with a boner streak. If you don’t, the app provides tips on what to do next and even offers a free phone consultation with any of the physicians recommended by Roman.

Let Reitano explain it, “ We took something everyone is aware of — an erection — but may not understand the importance attached to it, and offered an aha moment. With a simple push notification, we made people become more aware of their wellbeing.”

What the makers of this app want to do is simple. Getting Uncle John Thomas to wake up in the morning takes a lot of thing working together for good.

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The body is like an engine, and if one part doesn’t work well, your little man may not get the blood or nervous signals he needs.

Sometimes it’s just a case of heavy drinking. Sometimes, it’s a sign of something much worse like heart disease, obesity, depression and so on.

Knowing their reputation for hyper-masculinity and bottling up, it’s not likely that an app like this would catch on in Nigeria.

\And that’s scary because apart from the obvious statistics, Nigerian men do a lot to cover any failings or shortcomings in their sexual health.

The reality is that no dose of burantashi can solve ED and as ridiculous as the idea of this app may be, it may actually be the kind of thing we need.