The short answer: a good testosterone clinic confirms low testosterone with repeat morning lab work before prescribing, monitors your blood counts and hormone levels on a set schedule, and tells you plainly when testosterone isn’t the right answer. In Chesterfield, Missouri, those are the seven questions to ask before you sign up anywhere, including with us.
I own Ignite Performance and Health on Clayton Road. I’m not the prescriber; our provider handles every medical decision under Medical Director oversight. But I hear from men every week who started testosterone somewhere else and can’t answer these questions about their own care. Ask them before you start.
1. Will you confirm low testosterone with more than one test?
The Endocrine Society’s clinical guideline recommends diagnosing low testosterone only when a man has symptoms and consistently low levels, measured with a fasting morning blood test and then confirmed with a second morning test (Bhasin et al., Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 2018). One afternoon draw is not a diagnosis. If a clinic is ready to prescribe after one test, ask why.
2. What else do you check before prescribing?
The same guideline recommends against starting testosterone in men with certain conditions, including an elevated hematocrit (the share of your blood made up of red blood cells), untreated severe sleep apnea, a recent heart attack or stroke, or a PSA level that needs a urology workup first. A clinic should ask about all of these and order labs to check them, not hand you a form to sign.
3. How often will you check my labs once I start?
Testosterone can raise red blood cell counts. The guideline calls for a standard monitoring plan in the first year that includes testosterone levels, hematocrit, and prostate cancer risk. Ask for the schedule in writing. Ask who reviews the results and how you’ll hear about them.
4. Who actually makes the medical decisions?
Get a name and a credential. Ask whether that person reviews your labs themselves and whether a physician oversees the practice. At Ignite, our provider makes every prescribing decision and our Medical Director reviews charts. The front desk and the coaches, me included, don’t.
5. What happens if my labs don’t support testosterone?
This is the question that separates clinics. A clinic that only sells one thing has a reason to find a way to sell it. Ask what they do for a man whose testosterone comes back normal. Sleep, body fat, training, alcohol, and stress all affect how you feel, and a good clinic will talk through those.
6. Is training and nutrition part of the plan, or extra?
Testosterone supports muscle and bone, but it doesn’t do the work of training and eating well. Ask whether the clinic has coaches, whether they see you in person, and whether the medical side and the coaching side talk to each other. At Ignite they’re one team in one building. We call it the Ignition Sequence™: medical care, coached strength training, and nutrition coaching run as one plan.
7. What does it cost, all in?
Ask for the full price of labs, the provider visit, medication, follow-up labs, and anything you’d add. Ask whether you’re signing a contract. You should be able to get a straight number before you hand over a card.
How Ignite handles it
Most new patients start with the 2-Week Launchpad, $199.99. It includes a lab draw, a sit-down with our provider on your results, six coached strength sessions, a body composition scan, and a nutrition assessment. On day 14 we sit down and decide on next steps together. Nothing renews automatically.
If you want to read more first, start with our testosterone therapy page or Testosterone vs. Estrogen: What Hormone Optimization Actually Means.
We’re at 14830 Clayton Rd in Chesterfield and accepting new patients. Call (314) 887-0858 or book your intake.
This content is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice. Talk with a qualified provider about your specific situation. Ignite Performance and Health is a LegitScript certified clinic.
