Medically reviewed by: 
This is an unbiased review of men’s health startup Roman (Ro). Roman promises doctor diagnosis and quick medication delivery for a variety of men’s health ailments, such as hair loss, ED and more. But do they deliver the results? Read on to find out!
Is online health startup Roman right for you?
Roman offers access to licensed doctors who can diagnose and treat hair loss, erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation and more common conditions that men face — all online. They can also ship medication discreetly to your home.
How to get a prescription from Roman
Getting a hair loss prescription (finasteride) or erectile dysfunction prescription (sildenafil or tadalafil) or other medications from Roman is simple, but does require you to interact with online forms and a remote doctor.
I found it very simple to complete Roman’s online application and get a doctor’s prescription for my medicine. Answering the questions online is a lot less intimidating than discussing this in person with someone, and I think this service might appeal to men who are less comfortable discussing their issues IRL. I’ll paste in a few screenshots from the process so that you can see how easy it is, and how little embarrassment there is.
My Roman Online ED Doctor's Visit
Here’s how an erectile dysfunction online registration works with Roman:
1.Register on Ro’s site – you’ll have to agree to receive “telehealth”, which is a fancy word for getting a diagnosis from a health professional online. You’ll then provide your zip code, birthdate, and then answer a series of health related questions. Basically, you are starting the telehealth physician’s visit, where the get roman ED doctor or hair loss doctor reviews your medical situation to make sure ED medication is right for you.
2. You’ll need to select the amount of ED medication that you think you’ll need – the pharmacy ships out the ED meds in individual packets, and you can select from a variety of doses/uses per month – from four to ten. For the anti-balding meds, they will recommend the right dosages and frequency.
3. Next you can select the type and brand of medication. Your choices are:
-
- Generic Viagra (Sildenafil)
- Viagra (Sildenafil)
- Cialis (Tadalafil)
- No preference
- I selected the Generic Viagra, due to the price. I’ll connect with our pharmacist to make sure I understand the implications of this decision.
4. The pricing is also provided, on a monthly or per dose basis. Generic Viagra was the cheapest, but here’s Roman’s full pricing menu:
Roman Pricing | What’s it for? | How’s it taken? | Price per dose | Monthly price | Quarterly price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sildenafil (Generic Viagra®) | Erectile Dysfunction | Pill (as needed) | $34 | – | – |
| Sildenafil | Erectile Dysfunction | Pill (as needed) | $2 – $10 | – | – |
| Tadalafil (Branded Cialis®) | Erectile Dysfunction | Pill (as needed) | $17 – $69 | $390 | – |
| Tadalafil (Generic Cialis®) | Erectile Dysfunction | Pill (as needed) | $11 – $44 | $240 | – |
| Finasteride (Generic Propecia®) | Hair Loss | Daily Pill | – | First month free, then $24. | $51 |
| Valacyclovir (Generic Valtrex®) | Herpes | Pill (as needed) | – | $14 | $42 |
| Sertraline (Generic Zoloft®) | Pre-Ejaculation | Daily Pill | – | $24 | $57 |
| Benzocaine | Pre-Ejaculation | Wipe (as needed) | – | First month $5, then $27. | $66 |
5. Next, you select what you think your preferred dosage is. They do make it clear that the doctor will advise you on the best dosage for you to start with. It seems that the different dosages are provided by multiple pills; for example, to get 80mg of Sildenafil (ED meds), you will take 4 20mg pills.
6. There are a series of simple to answer questions about your sexual health; answering these questions in an online form is much less embarrassing that discussing them in a doctor’s office! These are super easy for both the anti-balding medicines and for the ED medicines.
7. You’ll have to supply your blood pressure. The site says that this is because abnormal blood pressure can be a sign of underlying issues that may be causing erectile problems. If you don’t know your blood pressure, you’ll have to find a way to get one. (here are some ways to get your blood pressure taken). Thankfully, I knew my blood pressure due to a recent knee operation.
8. Following entering your blood pressure, there are a significant number of general health and sexual health questions. These are not hard (or embarrassing) to answer online, but you do need to read them carefully to make sure you understand what Roman is asking and to make sure you answer them correctly. A number of these questions are around heart and artery health, which makes sense since ED may be correlated with hardening of the arteries, which causes heart attacks and other heart health problems.
9. Roman then indicates that ED medication should not be used with a list of various medicines, and they ask you to check that you are not using any of them. Confusingly, Sildenafil is one of the no-good medicines listed – I’d check with a pharmacist and figure out what this is about.
10.While you’ve entered your email earlier, you don’t enter your name and address until near the end of the process.
11. You’ll need to take a series of photos – you can use a browser if your computer has a camera, or you can upload a photo if that’s easier:
- You need to take a photo to prove to the physician who you are – supposedly this is a telemedicine law that they have to follow. It’s pretty easy, so not a big deal.
- You also need to snap a shot of a driver’s license / government issued ID.
12. Finally, you enter your payment method (credit card). However, according to the site, you do not get charged until the doctor has met with you and confirmed that you need a prescription.
After you fill the form, the site lets you know when a physician will review your online visit. In my case, it says it will review it in 24 hours.
13. There is also a helpful video where a doctor explains what to expect now that you’ve completed the online application/visit.
14. Apparently some states require the doctor to call you – I did not need this. According to the email:
“Depending on your home state, you may need to talk to your doctor through a phone call or video chat. If your doctor tries to call you and you miss the call, no sweat! You’ll receive an email notification with instructions to reschedule the call.”
Sounds easy enough.
15. Within just a few minutes, I got an email from “Ro” saying that a doctor had reviewed my information and that I could likely benefit from the medicine.
16.My prescription was automatically sent to Roman’s pharmacy.
17.Pretty quickly I received notification that my credit card was being billed and a receipt from Roman. There is also an online Sildenafil Treatment Plan that outlines what to expect and how to use the medication. There was one interesting note about Sildenafil:
“Take the medicine on an empty stomach and avoid fatty foods for at least two hours before taking the pill. Fat interferes with its absorption. Grapefruit juice can possibly affect the absorption of sildenafil, as well. It increases the blood level after an initial delay in absorption. It can increase the possibility of side effects and can make it difficult to predict the effect with each use. Alcohol may be a means to relax but it can impair achieving and maintaining an erection. Avoid alcohol.”
So, basically, no gin and juice!
18. Update: I describe my experiencing receiving meds from Roman in the mail at the bottom of this Roman ED review. Take a peak if you’re curious what the physical shipment looks like and what our final verdict is on the service as a whole.
Does Roman work for hair loss?
Roman only prescribes legitimate, FDA-approved medicines for hair loss that work for most men – assuming the doctor deems you a good candidate for treatment.
You get access to a licensed physician virtually who only prescribes clinically-proven medicines that have serious medical research demonstrating their safety and effectiveness.
Our team of medical experts has reviewed many scientific journal abstracts (like this one) looking at the effectiveness of the prescription hair loss medicines that Ro prescribes — finasteride and minoxidil — both of which have a long history of preventing hair loss in 3-6 months of daily use for most men.
Related reading: Roman Topical Finasteride Review – Does It Work for Thinning Hair?
Why does Roman work for most men?
The medicines that Ro prescribes generally work for most men because:
- You get access to licensed medical specialist
- You can ask follow up questions about your treatment any time
- The medicines are FDA approved or prescribed off-label in a way that complies with US regulations
- Most of the products are available via recurring subscription, which is important for hair loss or ED, where you need to take the meds regularly to maintain results
- The ED and hair loss medications that we tried from Ro have worked for us – of course, you can’t know unless you try for yourself.
What does a Roman ED medicine shipment look like?
This video shows what a package of Roman erectile dysfunction pills looks like. Note the simple, discrete packaging – you can’t tell what’s inside until you open it up.
The Verdict: Is Roman legit for hair loss and ED?
Roman does have some competition in the hair loss and ED space, and you can read our full comparison of Roman vs Hims vs Keeps. Its biggest ED rival is probably Hims, while its biggest competitor in the hair loss space is likely Keeps. Overall, Roman offers men a refreshingly easy, discrete, and affordable way to get generic meds online.
We’ve tried several of the online telemedicine companies, and can strongly recommend Roman for both hair loss and ED. The company also offers legitimate medications for many other common conditions, which we’ve reviewed in-depth as well:
Here are some of the reasons we like Roman:
- Low-priced (read: Free) doctor visits
- Variety of branded and generic medicines for a variety of health conditions men often have
- Affordable prices and free shipping right to your home in discreet packages
- Easy cancellation, so if you don’t like it you aren’t trapped
- Convenient online consultation – clearly designed to make it easy for you to explain your condition and symptoms to a real doctor, without all the embarrassing parts
- Unlimited follow ups – access a licensed physician as needed to answer questions and/or adjust care
Ready to get started? Roman offers a free doctor’s visit – click here to give it a try.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How do you cancel Ro subscription?
Thankfully Ro makes it very easy to cancel your subscription. Watch this video and follow these steps and you will be unsubscribed in no time at all.
In fact, one of the main reasons we strongly recommend Ro is because they make it so easy to modify or cancel your subscription – no tricks here, they want you to stay if you are happy and make it easy to leave if you’re not.
You can elect to just delay your subscriptions, of if you actually want to cancel the orders you need to click on the name of the medicine. Then scroll down to where you see “change plan” – don’t get distracted by the “delay order” buttons, you want to actually change the plan. Next select “turn off auto refills.” They will give you another chance to keep your subscription, but don’t do it, select the turn off button.
That’s it! Super easy. Watch the video below as well to see how to actually log in and cancel your orders.
Are Roman doctor's legit?
Ro’s team of doctors are legitimate physicians licensed to treat patients and prescribe medication virtually. If you’re looking for a professional opinion before choosing to move forward with a specific treatment, consulting a dermatologist is the right first step, and Ro offers convenient online access.
As we mentioned before, some states require a video chat with the doctor, but for me (in California) all I had to do was submit an online form. The doctor did reach out to me online later to ask if I had questions, but I didn’t have to respond. Plus, you can see from the pictures I took above, the medicines you get from Roman are legit.
Methodology
We conduct extensive research to evaluate the pricing, effectiveness, accessibility, overall quality, and user experience of every telehealth service we review. This also includes examining and comparing each provider to comparable telemedicine alternatives. We also evaluate usability, treatments, prescription delivery time, and more to determine the best value for those seeking fast and reliable telehealth services.
| Review Process | Key Metrics | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Sign up online | – ease to complete intake form – affordability – upfront commitment or subscription required? – money back guarantee or refund policy? | 0.5 |
| Vitual consult with provider / determine eligibility | – ease to get appointment to determine eligibility – need to leave house for labs or other in-person care? | 1 |
| Shipping + unboxing | – shipping cost – time from order to treatment delivery – discreet packaging to maintain privacy | 0.5 |
| Test + journal for 1-3 months | – ease of application – transition into habitual use – taste / smell / feel / pain | 1.5 |
| Results after 3 months of use | – efficacy / results – lack of side effects – ease of refill / reordering – quality of ongoing clinical support – responsive customer support – willingness to recommend to a friend | 1.5 |
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