Oryx is a doctor-led health service for South African men and women. You start with a free two-minute check and speak to one of our doctors by video. If treatment is right for you, you get a personalised plan, your medicine delivered discreetly to your door, and a doctor who stays with you after that. This is why we built it.
Key takeaways
- Oryx began with Dr Francois Ehlers and Dr Vincent Ehlers, cousins and Durban doctors who had the idea and registered the business. It gained real momentum and launched when Tom Chadwick and lead investor Mike Lambert joined them.
- It takes the same doctor-led care for hormones, hair, sexual health, peptides and weight online, for adults anywhere in South Africa.
- Every treatment starts with a free two-minute check and a video consultation with an HPCSA-registered doctor. Nothing is prescribed without one.
You probably can’t say exactly when it started. Maybe you stopped being the first one up in the morning. Maybe you started wearing a cap more, or turning the bathroom light off before you looked in the mirror. Maybe sex became something you planned around rather than looked forward to.
Nothing dramatic. Nothing you’d take to a doctor. So you told yourself it was age, or stress, or just the way things go. And you said nothing.
You’re far from alone.
The reasons are familiar: fear of what we’ll hear, the cost, the time, and a quiet belief that a man should just handle it.5
Oryx is for the man who’s been saying nothing. It’s just as much for the man who’s already decided: the one who’s made a promise, to himself or to the people he loves, to be a better version of himself, and wants a doctor in his corner to get there. Whichever one you are, you’re in the right place.
The doctorsTwo doctors in Durban
Dr Francois Ehlers and Dr Vincent Ehlers are cousins, and doctors, and they practise together in Durban.6
More than four years ago, they made a choice that raised a few eyebrows. They decided to put real time and money into an area most of medicine treated as an afterthought: men’s hormones, hair loss, and closely monitored peptide programmes. Nobody was calling it “health optimisation” yet. There was no trend to ride.
It started thin. A few patients, then a few more. Then word got around, the way it does when people feel properly looked after, and it grew faster than either of them expected.
What kept them going wasn’t the growth. It was the people. Men who’d arrived embarrassed, sometimes after years of putting it off, and who left with an explanation that finally made sense. Men who’d been told “your results are normal” elsewhere and sent home, still feeling nothing like themselves.
The person, not the prescription, was always the point.
The problemWhy one practice wasn’t enough
Every week in Durban was a reminder of how many people weren’t getting through the door.
Francois and Vincent couldn’t see all those people from one consulting practice in sunny Umhlanga. But they knew how to care for them. So they decided to build something that could reach them, wherever they live, without losing the thing that made their practice work: a real doctor, a proper assessment, and someone who stays with you after the first prescription.
The teamBuilding it
That’s a different job from medicine, and it’s where Tom Chadwick comes in.
Tom spent six and a half years at a boutique management consultancy in London, working with big corporates and lean start-ups: defining strategies, building business units, originating partnerships, restructuring teams and launching products. He left to build something from the ground up, in healthcare, with people he believes in. As Oryx’s Founding Managing Director, he took Francois and Vincent’s way of working and built the service around it: the platform, the pharmacy partnerships, nationwide delivery and the team that runs it every day.
Mike Lambert, an investor who knew both sides, brought the three of them together and backs the business as lead investor and adviser.
Our promiseWhat we promise
Your primeYour prime is still there
Your prime isn’t a number or an age. It’s the version of you that has the energy for your family, the confidence to walk into a room, and the appetite for the things you love. For most people, it hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s just been waiting for someone to take it seriously.
QuestionsFrequently asked questions
Who started Oryx?
Oryx was founded by Dr Francois Ehlers and Dr Vincent Ehlers, cousins and doctors who practise in Durban. They had the idea and registered the business. It gained real momentum, and launched, when Tom Chadwick, now Founding Managing Director, and lead investor Mike Lambert joined them.
Are Oryx doctors registered in South Africa?
Yes. Every consultation is with an HPCSA-registered South African doctor.
What does Oryx help with?
Oryx runs doctor-led programmes for testosterone, hair loss, sexual health, peptides and weight.
Who can use Oryx?
Adults aged 18 and over, anywhere in South Africa. Women can currently book our Weight and Peptide programmes.
Do I have to start treatment?
No. The eligibility check is free and there’s no obligation. If treatment isn’t right for you, your doctor will tell you and explain the next step.
Whether something has changed and you’ve been saying nothing, or you’ve already made yourself that promise, start here.
The free eligibility check takes two minutes, it’s private, and there’s no obligation. If you’re a good fit, you’ll speak to one of our doctors.
References
- Feldman HA et al. Impotence and its medical and psychosocial correlates: results of the Massachusetts Male Aging Study. J Urol 1994
- Cortez GL et al. Male androgenetic alopecia. An Bras Dermatol 2025
- Woodiwiss AJ et al. High prevalence but lack of awareness of hypertension in South Africa, particularly among men and young adults. J Hum Hypertens 2023
- Wang Y et al. Do men consult less than women? An analysis of routinely collected UK general practice data. BMJ Open 2013
- Men’s views on factors contributing to their poor health-seeking behaviour in Limpopo Province, South Africa, 2025
- Oryx. Meet your doctors
