Ask who will evaluate you, how to verify credentials, what exact product and use are proposed, which pharmacy is involved, what evidence and risks apply, how follow-up works, and what the total cost includes.
1. Can the practitioner explain, in plain terms, why a peptide is being compounded under section 503A and which pharmacy they work with?
A credible clinician will articulate the regulatory rationale without reaching for marketing copy. They should name the 503A pharmacy and be willing to discuss its Indiana licensure and inspection history. If a clinic deflects, the deflection is itself the answer.
2. Will baseline labs (IGF-1, hormone panels, metabolic markers) be drawn before any peptide protocol begins?
A practitioner operating to a defensible standard will not write a sermorelin or CJC-1295 prescription without an IGF-1 baseline. Documentation that holds up to scrutiny is not optional.
3. What is the follow-up cadence — three months, six months — and who reviews the labs?
Anti-aging protocols are not one-and-done prescriptions. The physician, or a credentialed nurse practitioner under direct physician oversight, should review repeat labs at fixed checkpoints and adjust dose, frequency, or cessation based on what the numbers show. Ask who reviews the labs and how that review is documented in the chart.
4. What conditions would cause the physician to stop the protocol and how is that decision made?
A practitioner who cannot describe their stop-criteria has not thought about them. Reasonable answers include out-of-range IGF-1, adverse event, lack of measurable improvement at a defined checkpoint, or any new contraindication identified during follow-up. If the answer reduces to "we just keep going," the patient will be the one asked to defend that position, not the clinic.