Initial Consultation

You're paying for time, and that's the honest answer. A GP appointment is usually around 10 minutes, and many practices ask you to bring one problem; this is an hour and covers the whole story, including what runs in your family. If your GP can get you what you need, use them, and we will tell you when that's the better route.

Talking is the work, and the hour is where the pattern shows up. We go through your symptoms and when they changed, your cycle, sleep, energy and mood, what you've already tried, what you take, and your family history. You leave with a written summary, a testing plan where testing would genuinely help, and the next step written down.

We do not write prescriptions. What we do is work out with you what you need and put the reasoning in writing, so that your GP, or a prescriber we can point you to privately, has something to act on rather than your account of a conversation. If the private route costs anything, you will know the figure before you commit to it.

No. Weight comes up if you raise it, or if it is genuinely part of what you've described, and even then it is never the whole answer on its own. A lot of what women bring here has nothing to do with weight, and being told otherwise is usually why they stopped asking.

You can book this once, never come back, and still get the whole value of it, because the summary, the testing plan and the next step are yours either way. There is a longer programme, and if we think it fits we will say so once and then leave it alone. If it doesn't fit, we will tell you that too.

A form sorts you into a category. It cannot ask why your symptoms started the month they did, or notice that the same thing happened to your mother at 41. That noticing is the whole reason the appointment is an hour with a person.

The starting question is different. A menopause clinic starts from menopause; here we start from your history and work out what is actually going on, which is sometimes perimenopause and sometimes thyroid, iron, sleep or the load you're carrying. If it turns out to be something outside what we do, we will tell you who can look at it and how you reach them.

Book anyway, because missing results are normal and we start from your history, not your paperwork. If you have anything from the last year or so, bring it, along with a list of everything you take, supplements included. If you know anything about what has happened in your family and at what age, bring that too.

Crying in this appointment is common enough that it barely registers as an event; we stop, you take a minute, we carry on. Bring your partner, your sister or your mum if you'd like, and tell us at the start who is there. Some women want a second pair of ears and some want to say things they'd rather nobody else heard, and both are fine.

Your record is kept and carried forward, so the next appointment starts from what we already know instead of from scratch. If you need something we don't provide, we will tell you plainly who can look at it and how you reach them, and put it in writing so you're not repeating it from memory.

Yes. Everything here is online, so you can be anywhere in the UK. 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.