A PRP consultation is a sales conversation as much as a medical one. That isn't cynicism — most PRP is paid out of pocket, which means the person recommending it is usually the person billing for it. That structure isn't unique to regenerative medicine, but it does mean you should walk in with questions written down.

None of what follows requires you to know anything about platelet biology. These are questions any competent, honest clinic can answer in a sentence or two. The quality of the answers — and whether the person seems annoyed that you asked — tells you a great deal.

1. Who is actually performing the injection?

Ask for the credential, not the title. "Our specialist" and "our injector" are marketing words. Physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, and registered nurse are not interchangeable, and what each may legally do varies by state and by the level of physician supervision required.

Then ask a follow-up: how many of these specific procedures has this person done, and will they be the one doing mine? A knee injection into a joint space, a scalp injection into the dermis, and an injection near a tendon are different technical skills.

For anything deep — a joint, a tendon sheath, the spine — ask whether imaging guidance (ultrasound or fluoroscopy) is used. Blind injections into joints miss the target more often than most patients assume, and if the platelets don't land where the problem is, nothing else about the treatment matters.

2. What system do you use to prepare the platelets, and what does it produce?

This is the single most useful question, and the one most likely to get a vague answer.

"PRP" is not a standardized product. It is whatever comes out of a particular centrifuge, run at a particular speed, for a particular time, from a particular volume of your blood. Different commercial kits produce preparations that differ several-fold in platelet concentration, and they differ in whether white blood cells are included ("leukocyte-rich" vs. "leukocyte-poor"). Researchers have proposed multiple classification systems precisely because published trials often don't describe what they injected well enough to compare or replicate.

That variability is a major reason the evidence base is so muddled. A 2014 Cochrane review of platelet-rich therapies for musculoskeletal soft tissue injuries concluded the evidence was insufficient to support routine use, and specifically flagged heterogeneity in how the products were made and administered as a barrier to drawing conclusions.

So ask:

  • What kit or system do you use? (You should get a brand name.)
  • Is it leukocyte-rich or leukocyte-poor, and why did you choose that for my condition?
  • How much blood do you draw, and roughly what platelet concentration does the final product reach?

A clinic that can't answer these is not necessarily bad. But a clinic that answers confidently and specifically is one that has thought about what it's injecting.

3. Is this FDA-approved for my condition?

Almost certainly not, and you should hear the clinic say so plainly.

The centrifuge devices used to prepare PRP are cleared or approved by the FDA as devices — some of them for specific narrow uses, such as mixing PRP with bone graft material. That device clearance is not the same as the FDA having approved PRP as a treatment for knee arthritis, hair loss, facial rejuvenation, tendinopathy, or erectile dysfunction. Those are off-label uses.

Off-label is legal and common throughout medicine. What it means for you is narrower and more concrete: no regulator has reviewed evidence that this works for your problem, no agency is monitoring outcomes, and the burden of judging the evidence falls on you and your clinician.

It also matters for a related reason. Autologous PRP that is minimally manipulated and used in a homologous way generally falls outside the FDA's drug-approval pathway. Other products marketed alongside it — exosomes, amniotic or umbilical cord injections, "stem cell" preparations from birth tissue — often do not, and the FDA has warned consumers repeatedly about unapproved regenerative products and published guidance for patients considering regenerative medicine therapies. If a clinic offers you an "upgrade" from PRP to something derived from someone else's tissue, ask directly whether that product has FDA approval or an active Investigational New Drug application.

4. How many sessions, over what period — and what's the total cost in writing?

Get the whole course priced, not the first visit. Ask for it on paper or in an email before you pay anything.

The number you want is: total sessions recommended, interval between them, price per session, whether any maintenance is expected at 6 or 12 months, and whether consultation, imaging, or follow-up visits are billed separately.

Published prices for a single PRP session in the US commonly fall somewhere in the range of roughly $400 to $2,000, and multi-session courses — typical for hair loss and often for joints — can reach several thousand dollars. Ranges vary enormously by region, body site, and how much blood and processing are involved. Treat any quote outside the range as a prompt for more questions, in either direction.

Ask whether the clinic offers a package discount, and if so, whether the package is refundable if you stop partway. Prepaid non-refundable packages shift all the risk onto you.

On insurance: most US payers classify PRP as investigational for most indications and do not cover it. Ask the clinic to say so explicitly rather than telling you they'll "try to bill it." If they suggest coding it as something else, leave.

5. How will we know whether it worked?

Before the first injection, agree on a measurement. For pain and function, that might be a 0–10 pain score, a validated questionnaire, walking distance, or the specific activity you can't currently do. For hair, standardized photographs taken under identical conditions, and ideally hair counts in a marked area. For skin, standardized photos with fixed lighting and angle.

Also agree on a timeline. PRP effects, where they occur, are typically described as developing over weeks to a few months rather than days. Ask when the clinic expects to reassess, and what result at that point would mean the treatment is working versus not.

If the answer is "you'll just feel it," you have no way to distinguish a real effect from the natural fluctuation of a chronic condition — or from the placebo response, which is substantial in pain and in injection procedures generally.

6. What happens if it doesn't work?

Ask this out loud and watch the response.

Reasonable answers: we reassess at 3 months, and if there's no meaningful change we stop and discuss alternatives; we don't recommend a second course for non-responders. Concerning answers: we'd just do more sessions; everyone responds eventually; non-response means you needed the more expensive version.

Ask specifically whether there is any refund or credit policy for a prepaid course you discontinue.

7. What are the risks, and who do I call?

Because PRP uses your own blood, the risk profile is generally considered favorable — but it is not zero. Any injection carries risks of infection, bleeding, nerve irritation, and a post-injection flare of pain that can last several days. Ask what the clinic has seen, what the after-hours contact is, and who manages a complication if it happens on a weekend.

Also ask what medications you should hold beforehand and for how long, and whether the clinic wants you off NSAIDs — protocols vary and the evidence behind them is not settled.

Serious adverse events tied to regenerative products can be reported to FDA MedWatch.

8. What else could I do, including nothing?

A good clinician can describe the alternatives without disparaging them. For many musculoskeletal conditions, structured exercise and weight management have stronger and more consistent evidence than any injection — the AAOS clinical practice guideline on knee osteoarthritis is a reasonable place to see how injections rank against those basics. For hair loss, there are FDA-approved drugs with decades of trial data.

Ask: "If PRP didn't exist, what would you recommend for me?" The answer tells you whether PRP is being offered as one option among several or as the product the clinic sells.

Red flags in one list

  • Pressure to decide today, or a discount that expires at the door
  • Prepaid, non-refundable multi-session packages
  • Before-and-after galleries but no willingness to discuss non-responders
  • Cure language, or a single therapy offered for a long list of unrelated conditions
  • "Stem cell" or exosome products described as FDA-approved
  • Reluctance to name the preparation system or the injector's credential
  • No written total cost

If you want to check whether a treatment is under legitimate study for your condition, ClinicalTrials.gov is searchable by condition and intervention — and enrolling in a trial is sometimes a way to receive a treatment without paying cash for it.

This guide is information, not medical advice. Decisions about your care should be made with a licensed clinician who has examined you.