PRP Injections in Chicagoland

PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma, and the treatment begins with your own blood. A provider draws a small sample, roughly what a routine lab test takes, and places it in a centrifuge. Spinning separates the blood into layers and concentrates the platelets into a small volume of golden plasma. Platelets are best known for clotting, but they also carry growth factors, the signaling proteins your body releases at a site of injury to recruit repair. Concentrating those platelets and placing them exactly where you want that repair signal is the whole premise of the treatment.

What separates an injected PRP treatment from a topical one is depth and placement. When plasma is used as a glide during a needling pass it reaches the upper skin through the channels the pen creates. When it is injected, your provider deposits it into a chosen plane, at a chosen depth, in a chosen area, using a fine needle or a blunt cannula. That control is why injected PRP is booked, priced and consented separately, and why it is used for tissue quality and softening of hollows rather than for surface texture alone.

Because the plasma is autologous, meaning it comes from you, there is no donor material and no prospect of an allergic reaction to a foreign filler substance. That is a real advantage and it is why many people ask for it. It is not the same as saying the treatment carries no risk. Any injection can bruise, swell or introduce infection, and the blood draw is itself a medical procedure. At Express Med Spa the draw, the spin and the injection are all performed by licensed medical providers using single-use sterile equipment and single-patient tubes, and your plasma never leaves the room it was drawn in. A separate PRP consent is signed before any session.

This is the part most pages skip, so it is worth stating plainly. The centrifuge systems used to prepare platelet-rich plasma are regulated by the FDA as devices, and the ones on the market are cleared to prepare PRP from a patient’s own blood, typically for mixing with bone graft material in orthopedic settings. Using that plasma for facial rejuvenation, for lashes, for breast tissue or for sexual wellness has not been evaluated by the FDA for safety or effectiveness. There is no FDA approval for a cosmetic PRP indication.

That does not make these treatments unlawful or unusual. Autologous PRP is offered widely across medicine and aesthetics, and a provider may use a cleared device according to their clinical judgment. It does mean the aesthetic uses sit outside any reviewed indication, and you should be skeptical of any clinic that tells you otherwise or implies government endorsement.

On the published evidence, the honest summary is that it varies sharply by application. PRP for androgenic hair loss and PRP for knee osteoarthritis have the largest controlled trial literature behind them. Facial rejuvenation has a smaller and more mixed body of work, with real limitations: preparation protocols differ between studies, platelet concentrations are rarely standardized, and many trials are small and lack blinded assessors. The evidence for lash, breast and intimate applications is thinner still and is best described as early. None of that means the treatment does not work for a given person. It means nobody can promise you a result, and any clinic quoting a precise percentage improvement is quoting a study you should ask to see. We would rather tell you that at the consultation than after you have paid.

The face is where most injected PRP is used at Express Med Spa, and it comes in two forms.

The PRP Full Face Lift is the comprehensive option at $875* for a 60 minute appointment. Plasma is placed across the areas that lose support first, which for most people means the temples, the mid-face and cheeks, the area around the mouth, and the skin of the lower face and jawline. The name describes the scope of the treatment area, not a surgical lift: nothing is cut, nothing is tightened mechanically, and it is not a substitute for a surgical facelift. What it aims at is tissue quality across the whole face at once, which is why it is priced and timed differently from a single-area treatment.

PRP Filler Replacement is the targeted option at $500* for 30 minutes. It is chosen by people who want the regenerative approach in a specific area rather than across the face, and by people who would prefer not to place a hyaluronic acid gel. Our providers also use it for hyperpigmentation. It is worth being clear about what this can and cannot replace. PRP does not add immediate structural volume the way a hyaluronic acid filler does, so if your goal is a defined lip or a sharply projected cheek, filler remains the tool for that. Where PRP is often preferred is delicate, thin-skinned areas, and the under-eye hollow is the one people ask about most. If you are weighing the two for that area specifically, our under eye filler page sets out the hyaluronic acid side of that decision so you can compare them properly before you book.

Injected PRP is not limited to facial rejuvenation. Express Med Spa offers four further applications, and because the evidence behind them is younger than the facial and hair literature, each one is consultation-led rather than something you should book from a price list alone.

PRP Lash Enhancement is $395* for 30 minutes and places plasma at the lash line with the aim of supporting the follicles there. PRP Breast Volumizer is $950* for 45 minutes and places plasma into breast tissue with the aim of supporting collagen and elastin; it is usually discussed as a series of three treatments over three to six months. It is not a breast augmentation, it is not a lift, and it does not substitute for surgery. PRP Intimacy Injection is $975* for 60 minutes and is offered for intimate wellness. We deliberately do not publish outcome claims for it: this is a private, consultation-only conversation with a licensed provider who will tell you what is and is not known, and it is not appropriate to sell from a web page.

Ultrasound guided joint pain injection with PRP is $525* for 45 minutes and is the one application on this page that is musculoskeletal rather than aesthetic. Ultrasound guidance is used so the plasma is placed accurately within the joint. It is typically recommended every six to twelve weeks for three to four treatments. Scalp PRP for thinning hair is a separate service with its own protocol and pricing: see PRP hair restoration for that, which combines injected plasma with needling of the scalp.

Plan for the appointment length attached to the service you booked, from 30 minutes for lash or filler replacement up to 60 minutes for a full face or intimacy treatment. Arrive well hydrated and having eaten, because you are giving blood before anything else happens.

The visit runs in four stages. First the draw: a provider takes a small blood sample from your arm exactly as a phlebotomist would, into single-patient tubes labeled in front of you. Second the spin: those tubes go into a centrifuge for several minutes, and while they spin your provider cleanses the treatment area and applies topical numbing. Third the separation: the concentrated plasma layer is drawn off into a syringe. You will see it, and it is a clear golden yellow rather than red, which surprises people who expect the treatment to look dramatic. Fourth the placement: your provider injects the plasma using a fine needle or a blunt cannula, working area by area against the plan agreed at consultation.

Most people describe the injections as a series of quick pinches with pressure behind them, more noticeable in thin-skinned areas such as the under-eye and around the mouth, and easier across the cheeks. Topical numbing takes the edge off, and joint injections are placed under ultrasound guidance so the provider can see exactly where the plasma is going. You leave with the treated area looking a little swollen and possibly pink, and bruising is common in delicate areas. Expect to look normal in public within a day or two for most facial work, though a bruise can take a week to settle. Full aftercare is given in the room, and our PRP aftercare guide, written for our scalp patients but built on the same principles, covers the first few days in more detail.

PRP does not work like filler, and the single most useful thing to understand before booking is the timeline. A hyaluronic acid filler places a gel that occupies space, so the change is visible as you leave the chair. PRP places a repair signal and then relies on your own tissue to respond to it, which takes time. Anything you see in the first week is swelling from the injections, not the result.

In practice most people begin to notice a change in skin quality somewhere between four and eight weeks, and continue to see it develop for around three months as collagen remodels. That is why PRP is almost always recommended as a series rather than a single appointment. For facial treatments a common plan is two to three sessions spaced four to six weeks apart, then maintenance. The joint protocol runs every six to twelve weeks for three to four treatments, and the breast protocol is three treatments over three to six months. Your provider will set the plan at consultation.

How long it lasts depends on what your body does with the signal, which is why honest answers here come as ranges rather than numbers. After a completed facial series many people maintain their result for somewhere around a year and return annually, though this varies considerably with age, skin condition, smoking, sun exposure and general health. Results vary between individuals and some people respond more strongly than others. Because the material is your own plasma, the quality of the concentrate also varies from person to person and from draw to draw, which is a genuine difference from a manufactured product where every syringe is identical. Nobody, at any clinic, can tell you in advance exactly how you will respond.

Against topical PRP. The best known PRP treatment is the one where plasma is applied as the glide during a needling pass, which the press nicknamed the vampire facial. That is a different service from this page, at a different price, and it targets surface texture and scarring rather than tissue support at depth. If what you actually want is help with acne scars, pores and skin texture, that is the better value option and you should read microneedling with PRP instead. It is a $195* add-on to any microneedling service rather than a standalone injectable, and you can see the underlying treatment on our microneedling page. Some people combine the two over a treatment plan.

Against hyaluronic acid filler. These are complementary rather than competing. Filler gives immediate, predictable, reversible volume and is the right tool for definition and structure. PRP gives a gradual change in tissue quality with no foreign material and no risk of an allergic response, but it will not sharply define a feature and it cannot be dissolved if you dislike it, because there is nothing to dissolve. Many of our patients use both, filler for structure and PRP for quality.

Against stem cell growth factors. Our STEMfacial option uses a manufactured growth factor matrix rather than your own blood, so it needs no draw and delivers an identical concentration every time. PRP uses your own biology and requires the draw. Neither is categorically better; they suit different priorities and budgets, and the choice is worth making with a provider rather than from a price list. Whichever you lean toward, every one of these treatments is available at all four of our clinics in Frankfort, La Grange, Shorewood and Mount Greenwood.