Elevate MD

Elevate MD 🩺 Physician-Led Hormone Optimization
👩🏻‍💻 Telemed across the U.S.
👇🏻 Want to work with us? https://www.elevatemd.co/bio
(5)

01/10/2026

If you’re in or menopause, and you’re struggling with histamine intolerance… THIS VIDEO IS FOR YOU! 🤧

If you’ve suddenly started experiencing…
👉🏻 New allergies
👉🏻 Asthmatic symptoms
👉🏻 Severe GI issues
👉🏻 Hives, eczema, dermatitis, swelling, itching
👉🏻 Rashes & flushing
👉🏻 Food & alcohol intolerances
👉🏻 Anxiety, heart palpitations, dizziness, & vertigo
👉🏻 Congestion, runny nose, post nasal drip
👉🏻 Brain fog (especially after eating)
👉🏻 Headaches/Migraines
👉🏻 Insomnia

📢 IT COULD BE YOUR HORMONES! 📢

I will be doing a full deep dive into everything you need to know about hormone + histamine intolerance over the next week including pathology, triggers, lifestyle modifications, remedies, and how hormone therapy & non-hormonal peptide therapy can be really helpful for hormone induced histamine intolerance! 🙌🏻

Please feel free to drop your questions in the caption so I can make sure to cover all my bases throughout this series. 🤗

✨Histamine Hacks✨
☑️ DAO Enzymes for histamine metabolism (take before meals)
☑️ Quercetin & Bromelain for natural mast cell stabilization.
☑️ Charcoal binder to help remove histamine
☑️ Stinging nettle (natural antihistamine)
☑️ Second generation antihistamines such as Zyrtec, Claritin, Pepcid, Xyzal, Allegra, & Zantac.

If you have tried any combination of anti-histamines, natural mast cell stabilizers, or DAO enzymes, and nothing is giving you any kind of real relief, you may benefit from hormone support. 🙏🏼

🩺📲 If you’re in the US, and you’re at all curious about hormone therapy, feel free to go to the 🔗 in my bio to book a free 30 minute call with my team to learn how to get started. 🤗

01/08/2026

Peri After Dark Q&A! All questions welcome 🤗

01/08/2026

If you’re in & you’ve suddenly started experiencing all sorts of weird histamine related symptoms… THIS VIDEO IS FOR YOU! 🫵🏻

Histamine intolerance is a common issue for a lot of women during perimenopause & menopause due to low progesterone & chaotic estrogen fluctuations or estrogen dominance.

Common histamine symptoms may include…

👉🏻 Worsening allergies, hives, swelling, dermatitis, flushing, itching, & eczema
👉🏻 GI related symptoms such as nausea, reflux, diarrhea, stomach pain, bloating, gas, & even gastrointestinal anaphylaxis
👉🏻 Nervous system related systems such as heart palpitations, racing heart, insomnia, light sensitivity, irritability, dizziness, vertigo & anxiety
👉🏻 Headaches, Migraines, Brain fog
👉🏻 Runny nose, post nasal drip, & congestion
👉🏻 Anaphylaxis

What makes this even more confusing is that histamine symptoms may not have an obvious trigger, so it may feel like your body is attacking itself for no apparent reason. 🫠

If you guys are interested, I would like to turn this into a series where we explore what some of these weird histamine triggers might look like so you can better understand how to avoid them, or what you can do when you feel it coming on. 👏🏻

Outside of hormone therapy, here are my favorite supplement recommendations for exercise induced histamine flares…

☑️ DAO Enzymes for histamine metabolism.
☑️ Second generation anti-histamines such as Zyrtec, Claritin, Pepcid, Allegra, & Zantac.
☑️ Charcoal binder before bed to help flush out excess histamine. (Make sure you do not take this within 2 hours of any other medication.)

If you have tried any combination of anti-histamines, natural mast cell stabilizers, or DAO enzymes, and nothing is giving you any kind of real relief, your hormones may be the underlying issue. 👀

🩺📲 If you’re in the US, and you’re at all curious about hormone therapy, feel free to go to the 🔗 in my bio to book a free 30 minute call with my team to learn how to get started. 🤗

PCOS vs 👉🏻 How do we spot the differences even when your labs are ‘normal’? 🤔It is undeniable that PCOS & perimenopaus...
01/06/2026

PCOS vs 👉🏻 How do we spot the differences even when your labs are ‘normal’? 🤔

It is undeniable that PCOS & perimenopause have eerily similar symptom patterns. And this is because, at their core, they have very similar hormonal imbalances that can lead to a lot of symptom overlap.

This overlap has created a diagnostic blind spot where providers are wrongly blaming PCOS when certain symptoms may actually be indicative of perimenopause. Refusing to acknowledge the overlap can…

👉🏻 Dismiss signs of hormonal decline
👉🏻 Mask early perimenopause symptoms
👉🏻 Worsen estrogen dominance
👉🏻 Intensify insulin resistance
👉🏻 Increase nervous system dysregulation
👉🏻 Delay proper symptom treatment

Not only are women with PCOS being under-diagnosed, but women are also commonly misdiagnosed with PCOS when the real underlying issue is perimenopause. 🫠

Understanding the pattern, the timing, and your labs is how we correctly identify where your symptoms are coming from, and how we need to treat them!! 👏🏻

If your provider keeps writing off your symptoms as PCOS, even though you know deep down that something isn’t right, we would love to work with you! You know your body better than anyone else, and your symptoms deserve to be taken seriously. 🫶🏻

🩺📲 If you’re in the US, and you’re at all curious about hormone therapy for perimenopause or menopause symptom management, go to the 🔗 in my bio to book a free minute call with my team to learn how to get started. 🤗

01/06/2026

🚩 Pt 4. Red flags that we see commonly see on lab results… that your doctor probably told you looked ‘normal’ 👀

Have you ever asked your provider to check your hormones, but when you get your results back you realize that they only checked 1 or 2 labs, or they only checked your total hormone levels? 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

This is what we call “incomplete labs”, and it’s one of the worst red flags we see on patient lab results! 🚩

Incomplete labs tell an incomplete story, and this is why most women end up with a “normal” diagnosis even though they absolutely do not feel normal. 🥹

Total hormone labs can mask very severe hormonal imbalances or deficiencies since they do not identify individual hormone bioavailability. Checking individual hormone bioavailability will provide so much more valuable feedback about what your symptoms are trying to tell us.

Here’s what this looks like:
❌ Total estrogens ✅ Estradiol
❌ Total Test ✅ Free Test
❌ Quantitative T4 ✅ Free T4
❌ Quantitative T3 ✅ Free T3

So if you’ve ever fallen victim to ‘normal’ lab results, and you suspect that your provider may be running incomplete labs, this is your sign to second opinion! Your lab results should be used to understand your symptoms, not dismiss them! ❤️

🩺📲 If you’re in the US, and you’re at all curious about how hormone therapy can help you find yourself again, go to the 🔗 in my bio to book a free 60 minute call with my team to learn how to get started. 🤗

01/02/2026

Welcome to our weekly Peri After Dark Q&A! 🤗 All questions are welcome! 🔗 in bio to schedule free 60 minute call with my team.

01/02/2026

🚩 Red flags that we see commonly see on lab results… that your doctor probably told you looked ‘normal’ 👀

Today’s topic is a little bit different, because we more commonly see providers completely failing to check this lab all together. 🚩🫠

SHBG is a protein that binds to your bioavailable hormones, rendering them inaccessible. This biomarker is essential when evaluating hormone bioavailability, because it allows us to measure how much access your body actually has to your hormones. 🔒

Failing to check this lab is a common reason women are told that their labs look ‘normal’ despite the fact that they’re experiencing very debilitating hormone-related symptoms! 🥹

👉🏻 What causes elevated SHBG? 🤔
One of the most common causes of elevated SHBG is synthetic estrogen use (most commonly found in birth control). Many women will continue to experience high SHBG for many years after discontinuing their birth control, which is another reason this issue is commonly overlooked.

👉🏻 How is the info useful? 🤔
Patients with elevated SHBG may need supplemental support to help lower their SHBG (boron is a great option), but this biomarker will also impact how we prescribe your hormone therapy protocol. Women with elevated SHBG may require higher dosing to get the same benefit from their protocol.

This is the perfect example of why lab work is essential & why hormone therapy HAS to be individualized. No 2 protocols can be the same, because no 2 people are the same! Your protocol needs to be 100% tailored to your unique needs and goals. 👏🏻🫶🏻

🩺📲 If you’re in the US, and you’re at all curious about how hormone therapy can help you find yourself again, go to the 🔗 in my bio to book a free 60 minute call with my team to learn how to get started. 🤗

🚩 Red flag symptoms we see in women with ADHD that scream (even if your labs look ‘normal’ 👀)Hormonal transitions (pub...
01/01/2026

🚩 Red flag symptoms we see in women with ADHD that scream (even if your labs look ‘normal’ 👀)

Hormonal transitions (puberty, postpartum, perimenopause) are high-risk windows for symptom escalation in women with ADHD.

New research recently published in the Journal of European Psychiatry proves that women with ADHD are more likely to experience perimenopause symptoms earlier (with increased severity) compared to women without ADHD.

This research validates trends that we have seen in our patients for years: Perimenopause hits women with ADHD harder & faster. 🫠

Hormonal fluctuations & decline during perimenopause take a massive toll on the ADHD brain. It’s important to understand that perimenopause doesn’t cause ADHD, it just exposes what hormones were compensating for.

Here’s what’s happening… 👇🏻
☑️ Dopamine & norepinephrine instability
☑️ Reduced prefrontal cortex efficiency
☑️ GABA deficiency
☑️ Increased cortisol sensitivity
☑️ Nervous system dysregulation
☑️ Loss of hormonal buffering
☑️ Sleep & circadian disruption
☑️ Reduced emotional inhibition
☑️ Decreased stress resilience
☑️ Increased sensory processing sensitivity

If you have ADHD and perimenopause or menopause feels like it hit you harder than everyone else… you’re not imagining it. This is what happens when hormones, dopamine, sleep, and nervous system regulation collide.

You’re not broken. 🥹🫶🏻

🩺📲 If you’re in the US, and you’re at all curious about how hormone therapy can help you find yourself again, go to the 🔗 in my bio to book a free 60 minute call with my team to learn how to get started. 🤗

Source: Smári, Unnur Jakobsdottir, et al. “Perimenopausal Symptoms in Women with and without ADHD: A Population-Based Cohort Study.” European Psychiatry, vol. 68, no. 1, 2025, article e133, doi: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2025.10101. PubMed Central, PMC12538516.

12/31/2025

🚩 Red flags on your lab results that scream (even though your doctor told you everything looked ‘normal’ 🙄)

Women often fall victim to ‘normal’ labs during perimenopause, because there technically aren’t any standardized lab ranges for perimenopause like there are for menopause. 🤔

Between the lack of diagnostic ranges & how broad each individual range is for what’s considered‘normal’, your doctor is likely going to dismiss your symptoms & slap a gold star on your lab results despite the fact that your body is screaming for help! 🥴

NORMAL ≠ OPTIMIZED 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Here are some of the most common symptoms we hear from patients that are struggling with estrogen dominance or low progesterone:

☑️ Water retention & unexplained bloating
☑️ Weight gain around hips, thighs, & lower belly
☑️ Mood swings or emotional volatility
☑️ Increased anxiety & overstimulation
☑️ Rumination or intrusive thoughts
☑️ Irritability or rage that feels out of character
☑️ Nervous system dysregulation
☑️ Headaches or migraines (often cyclical)
☑️ Poor stress tolerance (small things feel overwhelming)
☑️ Insomnia or light, fragmented sleep
☑️ Low libido
☑️ Worsening ADHD-like symptoms
Histamine intolerance or allergy-type symptoms
☑️ Gut issues (constipation, slow motility, bloating)
☑️ Facial puffiness
☑️ Joint swelling or stiffness
☑️ Hair shedding or thinning
☑️ Hormonal acne
☑️ Heavy periods (especially more clotting)
☑️ Shorter cycles or irregular periods
☑️ Spotting between periods
☑️ Worsening PMS or PMDD-like symptoms

If any of these symptoms describe what you are experiencing, we would love to give you a second opinion. Your symptoms are real, and they matter! 🥹🫶🏻

🩺📲 If you’re in the US, you can go to the 🔗 in my bio to book a free 60 minute call with my team to learn how to get started. 🤗

12/30/2025

If you’re in and you have ADHD, THIS VIDEO IS FOR YOU! 🫵🏻🧠

Women with ADHD often experience more intense symptoms and earlier onset perimenopause symptoms than neurotypical women… and there’s a very real neurological reason for this.

Let’s connect the dots ⬇️

✨ Less Estrogen = Less Dopamine
Estrogen directly supports dopamine production and receptor sensitivity. Dopamine is essential for motivation, focus, working memory, and executive function.

✨ Less Estrogen = Less Norepinephrine
Estrogen also helps regulate norepinephrine, which supports attention, alertness, emotional regulation, and stress tolerance.

✨ Perimenopause = Neurotransmitter Chaos
As estrogen begins to fluctuate and decline during perimenopause dopamine becomes less available, norepinephrine signaling becomes dysregulated, & ADHD symptoms intensify!

ADHD brains are more sensitive to neurotransmitter shifts. Even subtle hormonal changes can feel catastrophic, which is why many women with ADHD notice perimenopause symptoms years earlier than expected.

When hormonal fluctuations are properly addressed, many women notice:
👏🏻 Improved focus
👏🏻 Better emotional regulation
👏🏻 Increased mental stamina
👏🏻 Improved medication response
👏🏻 Reduced overwhelm

🩺📲 If you’re in the US, and you’re at all curious about hormone therapy for perimenopause or menopause symptom management, go to the 🔗 in my bio to book a free 60 minute call with my team to learn how to get started. 🤗

Address

7265 Kenwood Road, Suite 230
Cincinnati, OH
45236

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 4pm
Tuesday 8am - 4pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 4pm
Friday 8am - 4pm

Telephone

+15138827006

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Elevate MD

We specialize in taking care of the whole patient. Not just your numbers, not just one symptom. We provide general women’s health care and gynecology as well as natural bioidentical hormone replacement for both men and women. We are the most well trained providers in peptide therapy in the Cincinnati area. We also specialize in office cosmetic procedures including liposculpture, Botox and fillers, PRP, and rejuvination procedures. Dr Franzese is the only physician in the Tri-State area providing the most advanced protocols for treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury for Military personnel and Civilians.