Questions
Everything patients ask before they book.
Elevate Chicago is a physician-led, 100% virtual hormone optimization and peptide therapy practice serving patients nationwide. If your question is not here, call 847-716-2273 or email frank@elevate-chicago.com.
Getting started
What is Elevate Chicago?
Elevate Chicago is a physician-led hormone optimization and peptide therapy practice serving patients nationwide. We are 100% telehealth — there is no clinic to visit. Care is delivered by video visit, labs are drawn at a Quest Diagnostics location near you, and protocols ship to your door.
How do I start?
You apply and book online. A $100 application fee reserves your intake and is credited toward your first order. From there: a 65-biomarker baseline panel at Quest, a video visit with your physician, then a protocol written for your numbers and your goals.
Do I have to live in Chicago?
No. We are a nationwide telehealth practice and see all patients virtually. Availability depends on the state you are physically located in at the time of your visit — tell us your state during intake and we will confirm before you pay anything beyond the application fee.
How long until I feel something?
It depends on what we are correcting. Sleep and energy shifts are often the first thing patients notice, typically in the first several weeks. Body composition, libido and cognitive changes generally track over two to three months as levels stabilize and dosing is titrated.
Labs and visits
What is in the 65-biomarker panel?
A full hormone profile (total and free testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, DHEA-S, SHBG, LH, FSH), complete thyroid panel, metabolic and insulin markers, a full lipid panel, inflammatory markers, CBC, comprehensive metabolic panel, vitamin D and other micronutrients. We look at the whole system, not one number.
Where do I get my blood drawn?
At a Quest Diagnostics patient service center near you. All labs — baseline and follow-up — are done at Quest. We do not use at-home finger-stick kits, because dosing decisions deserve venous draws run on clinical-grade equipment.
How long is the physician visit?
Thirty minutes, by video, with the physician managing your case. You will go through every value, every symptom, your training load, your sleep and your goals. This is not a five-minute prescription call.
How often do we retest?
Typically at six to eight weeks after starting, then on an ongoing cadence set by your protocol. Optimization is a moving target — the plan changes as your biology and your season change.
Treatment and safety
Is hormone therapy safe?
Hormone therapy prescribed and monitored by a physician, with baseline and follow-up labs, is a well-established area of medicine. Safety comes from the monitoring, not the molecule: correct dosing, regular retesting, and a clinician who adjusts when the data says to. We will tell you plainly if we do not think you are a candidate.
Where do the medications come from?
Prescribed therapies are dispensed through FDA-registered compounding pharmacies and licensed pharmacy partners when available. Research-use compounds, where offered, are a separate category: not FDA-approved, not prescribed as medical care, and not intended for human or animal consumption.
Do you take insurance?
No. Elevate Chicago is a cash-pay practice. That is deliberate — it is what lets your physician spend thirty minutes with you and order the panel that is actually useful rather than the one a payer will reimburse. Many patients use HSA or FSA funds.
Will I be on this forever?
Some patients stay on a maintenance protocol indefinitely because it is working and the labs support it. Others use a defined window to correct a deficiency and then taper. That is a conversation with your physician, informed by your data — not a subscription we lock you into.