How we’ve built a new way to improve erections sustainably — and beyond pills.

Starting a new era of men’s intimate health.

In the last 15 years, there has been a boom of research and new findings around men’s intimate health and erections that go way beyond pharmaceutical solutions. Modern health guidelines tell urologists all over the world to include lifestyle changes and holistic supports when men struggle with their erection and not “just” give pills. Yet, effective guidance is inaccessible for men. Doctors still mainly offer a 25-year old solution: ED pills. At the same time, startups (and venture capital) focused on men’s health are largely focused on making money off generic pharmaceuticals for ED, rather than offering long-term holistic relief.

We are changing that. I have the personal and my co-founder Prof. Dr. Wolf Beecken has the professional experience to identify, combine and develop an effective holistic program for men’s intimate health.

Over the course of the last 16 months, that’s what we have been working on:

(1) We started with our co-founder’s experience. Max’s very personal experience as a patient overcoming his issues and Wolf’s experience as a world-class urologist were our starting point and provide the motivation and grit to go through the ups and downs of the startup cycle.

(2) We have been identifying all of the relevant peer-reviewed pieces of research on how to improve erections sustainably. And there is a lot of research.

(3) We’ve collected feedback from leading experts on the individual fields (nutrition, physiotherapy, exercises, etc.) and built the program components.

(4) We’ve released different prototypes. After talking to a number of users of different prototype versions, we have realized that people need guidance on their journey. It’s not enough to offer them a library with tools (like a Yoga app). Therefore, we’ve started to build a structured 10-week holistic program to strengthen erections with daily exercises, erection tracking, breathing, nutrition tips, lifestyle changes and relevant knowledge. Think of a weight loss or fitness program — but for erections (“Noom/WeightWatchers for erections”).

(5) We’ve carefully selected 40 participants (hundreds of men applied) and offered a clinically-proven supplement combination to half of them to understand the impact of it (like protein for weight lifting).

(6) We measured their erection based on a self-assessment score that is used everywhere in the world, the IIEF-5 (“International Index of Erectile Function”) multiple times during their program.

(7) We’ve checked in with many of them about their progress and collected detailed feedback on the program.

Our product Regimen (joinregimen.com, in public beta) is rooted in my personal experience and 100% based on scientific research

All of our program components are holistically designed to improve the relevant factors for a healthy and strong erection. They help the body to ensure blood circulation, improve penile inflow, reduce/control penile blood outflow, improve blood chemistry including testosterone levels, increase the number of erections to bring the blood where it’s needed, kick unhealthy habits, strengthen the central nervous system and support our members personally.

Our e-mail

Before the first version of the app was live, we just used a daily e-mail with links to the daily video exercises, breathing exercises, knowledge articles to be able to iterate the content faster.

• Targeted exercises: Our exercises have two goals: (1) to strengthen and stretch the pelvic floor and decrease blood outflow when our members get an erection and (2) increase blood flow in the areas where it matters. Numerous studies support the positive effect of a strong and flexible pelvic floor and a great blood circulation on the erection. Some studies claim that this should be not only the first-line intervention but always one complementary component to other treatment options. We are the first ones making it accessible.
• Daily erections (and erection tracking): It is extremely important to ensure at least one erection per day. Science says, if this doesn’t happen, the chance of fibrosis in the lean muscles in our penis and long-term irreversible decline of erectile function increases. Also, morning wood is a great indicator of a healthy erection. We guide our members to ensure at least one erection and at the same time track all the specific erections they have to show progress.
• Mindfulness: There is countless evidence about stress and anxiety and their negative effect on the erection. On the other hand, strengthening the central nervous system supports the entire system. We offer short daily breathing exercises to our customers to calm their minds and reduce their stress levels.
• Nutrition: There is a lot of scientific evidence about the Mediterranean diet and the positive effects on a healthy erection. There are even studies on reversing an ED through a Mediterranean diet. We offered the knowledge (and in the future we will offer a meal planner and recipe list) to switch to a Mediterranean diet and add the components that boost antioxidants and reduce inflammation.
• Knowledge & Lifestyle habits: A healthy erection is influenced by so many different factors: How much do we sleep? How much do we work? Do we drink alcohol or smoke? Are we using drugs? Are we getting enough sun? All of these factors have a positive or negative impact on our testosterone, our vascular health.
• Supplementation: As far as we know, there is one effective supplement combination that went through multiple clinical studies: Pycnogenol + L-Arginine. This combination supports the body to improve the nitric oxide in the blood which helps to improve and maintain a healthy composition of smooth muscles in the penis (that are responsible for blood inflow). L-Arginine alone is being decomposed too quickly. Pycnogenol seems to prevent this process.
• Chat & Support: We made sure to be accessible for questions and check in with us. More than half of our pilot cohort did with questions, feedback via e-mail and video call.
• Progress reports: We checked in every 4 weeks to get a health update based on IIEF-5 scoring.

These are the results of our real-life pilot with real users:

• After 4 weeks, our early members improved their erection by over 35% (based on IIEF-5). In user interviews and feedback e-mails, they reported consistently that it seems to help already within the first 2–4 weeks.
• Some users struggled with their commitment early on and dropped out.
• After 8 weeks, participants improved on average 45% and after 10 weeks, they’ve improved over 50%.
• Users jumped on average 1–2 categories (i.e. from moderate to mild dysfunction), multiple users were able to overcome their ED (increasing their IIEF-5 to a score of at least 23)

In addition, we found some additional interesting insights:

• Something not surprising: more active users was more successful as their erection score improved more.
• The users who have been taking the supplement combination improved slightly more and were significantly more active. Our data suggests that it’s an additional reminder to follow-through and stay on board. And that it amplifies the progress.
• The more committed the users, the better the results. If users dropped out, their scoring dropped. To make it last, men have to continue to take care (just like going to the gym)
• What Wolf suggested beforehand seems to be true: users with a more severe dysfunction need more time to improve. They also benefit at a greater level of the use of additional supplements.
• Men want to talk about their issues and questions. One key component in our program will be human support and a peer group (in a chat). Many of our members were so grateful to talk to Max as someone who can relate based on his own history.
• Men are different and erections are complicated. As we grow, will have to understand the data and adjust the journey to the individual user.

What our users say

These early results are extremely promising. Our Chief Health Officer Dr Wolf Beecken couldn’t even believe it at first. But what really motivates us to make this accessible for every man is the feedback of our earliest members.

Just a couple of examples (out of many encouraging calls and messages):

I am able to get erections again and the quality of those erections have majorly improved. I am getting them in the mornings again as well. I would say 4/5 nights now I wake up hard! (…) Oh, and this improvement has occurred WITHOUT Cialis!!!

I haven’t been this functional in YEARS. I will not say that I’m “cured” (…) but this progress I’m telling you, is real, because of guys like you, not doctors.

Another user from Canada reported at the end of the program:

I will keep Regimen as a resource for continuing my journey. This course was excellent and positively influenced my wife and I’s intimacy.

Thank you very much to you and the team!

As a third example this user from the US wrote a couple of weeks in:

Hey Max,

Still on board, yeah progress is there, morning wood is returning. I am so glad to be back on it as I notice it really helps.

Thank you for this wonderful program and glad to help. Reach out anytime.

Happy thanksgiving and all the best from Washington DC,

Join our journey

Our first version of the app is live (and still looks rough around the edges) — but as we are making progress, we are grateful for all of your support.

We believe we are already changing the lives of hundreds of men around the globe. And we are aiming at offering solutions for every man’s intimate health issue beyond pills —starting with better and healthier erections. We believe this will result in happier and healthier relationships, lives and connections.

Let’s change the way we all take care of our intimate health. Let’s stop being ashamed. Join us on our journey and follow me on Medium, Linkedin or Twitter.