Follow Up Consultation

It's priced separately because it's a separate appointment with separate work in it, and bundling it would mean charging every woman for one whether she needs it or not. You book it when there is something to review: results back, a change to make, or something that isn't working. If there's nothing to review, don't book it.

For reviewing results and adjusting a plan, yes, because we are not starting from the beginning. If what you bring turns out to be bigger than the time, we will say so on the call rather than rushing it, and we'll agree what the right appointment is instead.

Then we find out why, because that's information rather than a failure. Usually the plan asked for time or energy you didn't have, which means the plan was wrong, not you. We make it smaller and try again.

No, and you set the pace. Some women come back twice and are done; others would rather have someone who already knows the story reviewing things over the years. Nothing renews on its own and nothing books itself.

No, and we would rather tell you why than hide behind a policy. Reading numbers without asking what has changed since gives you a confident answer that may well be the wrong one. The 30 minutes exists because the interpretation depends on you, not on the printout.

You don't. Your record is held and carried forward, so we read your history before the call and we start from where we left off. Between appointments your plan stands and your record sits with the clinic; if something changes and it cannot wait, contact your GP or NHS 111, and we pick it up next time.

Normal results are still an answer, and often a useful one, because they rule things out and change where we look next. The frustrating version is when normal is the end of the conversation. Here it's the start of a different one.

We can review everything you take, read it against your history and your results, and tell you what we think and why, in writing. Anything that needs a prescription changed has to go to whoever prescribes it for you, and you'll have our reasoning on paper so you're not relaying it from memory. Please don't stop or change a prescribed medicine on your own; speak to your GP first.

Bring it, and say so at the start so we spend the time on it properly. If it's bigger than 30 minutes, or it belongs with somebody else entirely, we will tell you which and what to do next. Being told honestly that you're in the wrong room beats an appointment that dances around it.

Everything here is online, so you can be anywhere in the UK, which for most women is the difference between it happening and not happening. We do not currently see patients in person. The only person who ever comes to you is a phlebotomist, and only if you choose that option for a blood test.