The Fastest Way to See a Menopause Specialist in the UK

The fastest route is a remote private consultation, which needs no referral and can usually happen within days. The NHS routes are free but slower: your own GP within days to a few weeks, and an NHS menopause clinic commonly several months from referral. There are three routes in total and they differ by months rather than by days, so it is worth being honest about the timings rather than optimistic.

Route one: your own GP

Usually the fastest thing available and the one most often skipped. Most menopause care in the UK is delivered in general practice and does not need a specialist at all. Many practices also have one GP with a particular interest in menopause, and the answer you get can differ between two clinicians in the same building.

• •Typical wait: days to a few weeks for an appointment.
• •Cost: free.
• •Worth doing first even if you expect to go private, because it costs nothing and sometimes ends the search.
• •Ask when you book whether a GP at the practice has a menopause interest, and ask for a double appointment.

Route two: an NHS menopause clinic

These are specialist services and they are good. The obstacle is not quality, it is arithmetic. You need a referral from your GP, and referral criteria vary by area, so a request can be declined on the grounds that your care can be managed in general practice. Once accepted, waits are commonly several months and in some areas considerably longer. Provision is uneven across the country and some areas have no dedicated clinic within reach at all.

• •Typical wait: several months from referral, varying widely by region.
• •Cost: free.
• •Requires: a GP referral, which is not automatic.
• •Best for: complex cases, early menopause, or where there is a reason ordinary care is not suitable.

Route three: private, remote, no referral

A regulated private menopause service can usually see you within days, by video, from anywhere in the UK. No referral is needed to see a private prescriber in this country, and a remote consultation removes travel from the equation entirely, which is the practical reason this route is faster rather than any difference in clinical urgency.

• •Typical wait: days, sometimes the same week.
• •Cost: you pay. Nurse-led consultations are generally less expensive than consultant clinics. Our guide to what private menopause treatment costs in the UK sets out the ranges.
• •Requires: nothing. No referral, no waiting list.
• •Check the regulation before you book, not after. It takes about ten minutes and we set out how below.

How to shorten the wait, whichever route you pick

• •Write your symptoms down before the appointment, with when each one started and what you have already tried. Vagueness costs appointments.
• •Bring what you are already taking, at what dose, since when. If you are on HRT already, this is the single most useful thing you can bring.
• •Ask for a specific decision rather than reassurance: a dose change, a route change, a test, a referral. A recorded decision is something you can follow up.
• •Ask for a follow-up date at the appointment itself. The delay is usually not in getting seen, it is in getting seen again.

Before you pay, check the service

Speed is easy to advertise and regulation is not. Ask for the prescriber's name and registration number, and check it yourself. Our guide on whether online menopause clinics are regulated lists the registers you can search in a few minutes.

How Solene fits

Solene is a remote, nurse-led menopause service. You book a 45-minute video consultation with a named independent nurse prescriber, with no referral and no waiting list, usually within days.

We publish our prices in full rather than quoting on enquiry. They are all on our treatment plans page.