Concern
Tired in a way sleep does not fix
This is the concern where we are least likely to sell you anything, and we would rather say that at the top of the page than at the end of a consultation.
The list worth ruling out first
Persistent fatigue has a long differential, and most of it is medical rather than aesthetic. Some of these are found with a blood test your family doctor can order today.
- Iron deficiency, with or without anaemia — common and easily missed
- Thyroid dysfunction
- Vitamin B12 or vitamin D deficiency
- Sleep apnoea, which does not require snoring and does not require being overweight
- Depression and anxiety, which frequently present as physical exhaustion first
- Medication side effects, including some very common ones
What we can
and cannot do
At our North Vancouver clinic we offer intravenous hydration and nutrient therapy, and a physician's assessment for the hormonal causes of tiredness. What follows is an honest account of where each fits, which is narrower than the way these services are usually advertised, and narrower than what most people arrive expecting.
- No treatment needed
See your family doctor first
If you have not had bloodwork in the last year, that is the first step and it is not this clinic. A deficiency found on a blood test has a specific treatment; guessing at it with an infusion does not.
This is our actual recommendation for most people who write to us about fatigue. If you do not have a family doctor, an urgent care clinic can order the same panel.
- Skin & body
IV hydration and nutrient therapy
Intravenous fluid and nutrients, given under medical supervision after intake. Appropriate for documented deficiency where oral replacement is not tolerated or absorbed, and for acute dehydration.
We do not offer this as a treatment for illness, an immune booster, or a detox. Those claims are not supported and we will not make them.
- Downtime
- None
- Typically lasts
- Short-term. It is not a treatment for chronic fatigue and we do not describe it as one.
- Physician-led
Menopause and perimenopause assessment
When tiredness comes with hot flushes, night sweats, broken sleep or low mood in your forties or fifties, the change in hormones may be part of it. A physician takes the history, arranges bloodwork where it helps, and tells you whether hormone therapy is worth discussing.
Tiredness on its own is not a reason to start hormones. It is a reason to look.
- Physician-led
Low testosterone assessment
In men, persistent tiredness together with lower drive, loss of strength or low mood can reflect a low testosterone level — or sleep, weight, alcohol or medication. It is confirmed with two early-morning blood tests before anything else is discussed.
Another cause often turns up instead. Finding it is still the point.
Nothing on this page diagnoses anything, and intravenous therapy is not a substitute for medical investigation of persistent fatigue. Intake here includes questions designed to find people who should be seeing a physician rather than us — and we route them there.
What people ask
Will a drip give me more energy?
If you are dehydrated or have a documented deficiency that you cannot absorb orally, correcting it can help. If neither is true, the honest answer is that you are paying for saline. We would rather tell you that than take the booking.
Do I need bloodwork before coming?
For fatigue, yes, and we will ask. It changes what is appropriate, and without it we are guessing.
Do you offer anything that boosts immunity or detoxifies?
No. Those are marketing categories, not clinical ones. Health Canada regulates what can be claimed and sold here, and some substances marketed for these purposes are not authorised for sale in Canada at all.
Is there any downtime, and can I go back to work the same day?
There is no recovery period from an infusion itself. It runs about an hour with a nurse present, a bruise at the cannula site is common and settles over a few days, and people generally go back to work the same day. The time to set aside is for the assessment rather than for recovery — and if the assessment points at a family doctor rather than at anything here, that is the answer you get.
Tell us what is going on
Ask usWho does this
Assessments and treatments at the Lonsdale Avenue clinic in North Vancouver are carried out by MMC’s own clinicians. Who they are, what they trained in and which treatments each of them does is on the team page.
Other places people start
These are sorted by what is bothering you rather than by treatment name. Each page says what actually helps, what does not, and when the honest answer is that nothing here is needed.
- Loose Skin After Weight LossLosing the weight is the hard part and you have done it. What is left is usually a skin problem rather than a fat problem, and those have completely different answers.
- Dullness & Uneven ToneDullness and dehydration are a texture problem, not a shape problem. That distinction decides which half of the menu is even relevant.
- Volume Loss & HollowsVolume loss is the change people describe as looking tired or gaunt without being able to name a line. It is also the one where over-treatment is most visible from across a room.
- Forehead & Frown LinesForehead and frown lines are muscle before they are skin. The question that decides your result is not the dose — it is whether the line is still only there when you move.
- Hooded Upper LidsThe line where this stops being an injectable question and becomes a surgical one is unusually clear, and you are entitled to be told which side of it you are on.
- Jawline & Contour LossThe most common reason people book here, and the one where the honest answer changes most with age. In your forties a device usually does it. In your sixties it usually does not.
- Nasolabial FoldsNasolabial folds are usually a symptom. Filling the fold itself is the most common way to end up looking heavy in the lower face.
- Stubborn Body FatA pocket that stays the same size while the rest of you changes. Usually the flanks, the lower abdomen, or under the chin. The useful question is not which machine to use — it is whether what you are looking at is fat at all.
- Under-Eye Hollows & ShadowsThe most common request here, and the one where the answer is most often no. Under-eye shadow has at least four causes and filler helps exactly one of them.