Am I eligible for Wegovy? How to read the criteria honestly

Your BMI is the starting point, not the finish line

The licensed BMI thresholds for Wegovy exist because the clinical trials that established its safety and effectiveness enrolled participants within those ranges. NICE's appraisal of semaglutide for weight management (NICE TA875) and the medicine's UK licence both require a BMI of at least 30, or at least 27 when a weight-related condition is also present. For people from South Asian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Black African or African-Caribbean backgrounds, UK guidance sets those thresholds 2.5 kg/m² lower, recognising that metabolic risk accumulates at lower BMI values in some populations. You can check your own figure quickly using the NHS BMI calculator.

Hitting the number is necessary but not sufficient. A prescriber will also consider your weight history, any previous attempts at structured weight loss, and whether Wegovy is safe alongside your current medicines and health conditions. Some conditions, including a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2, mean Wegovy is not appropriate regardless of BMI. Pancreatitis history and certain gastrointestinal conditions also require careful discussion. If you want to understand the full picture before consulting a prescriber, our page on how to be eligible for Wegovy walks through every requirement in plain terms.

There is a useful page on the specific BMI requirements for Wegovy if you want to go deeper on how these thresholds were set and what lower-threshold eligibility looks like in practice.

Which weight-related conditions count at BMI 27 to 29.9

If your BMI falls between 27 and 29.9, you still qualify under the licence provided you have at least one weight-related comorbidity. The conditions most commonly cited are type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), dyslipidaemia (raised cholesterol or triglycerides), obstructive sleep apnoea, and established cardiovascular disease. Prediabetes and osteoarthritis also feature in clinical guidance. None of these need to be severe, but they do need to be documented, because a prescriber cannot simply take your word for them at the lower BMI band.

This is where the conversation with a prescriber matters most. The question our prescribers hear regularly from people in this BMI range is whether a mild or managed condition still counts. The answer is usually yes, but it requires clinical judgement rather than a checklist. If you are unsure which of your conditions might qualify, the consultation is the right place to explore that.

The full Wegovy eligibility criteria page covers each qualifying condition in more detail, including what counts as sufficient evidence of diagnosis.

NHS eligibility versus private eligibility — and why they differ

This is the distinction that confuses people most often, and it is worth being direct about it. The NHS route to Wegovy sits under NICE TA875, which restricts prescribing to specialist weight management services and sets additional requirements beyond the licence thresholds: patients must have a BMI of 35 or above (or 32.5 for the ethnic-background groups) alongside at least one weight-related comorbidity, and treatment is limited to a maximum of two years within a multidisciplinary programme. Waiting lists for these services run to months or longer in many areas.

Private prescribing follows the medicine's licensed criteria directly, which are broader. A BMI of 30 or above, or 27 with a qualifying condition, is the clinical threshold. The prescriber still conducts a full assessment and reaches an independent clinical decision, but there is no referral pathway or waiting list involved. For people who meet the licence criteria but fall below the NHS BMI threshold, or who simply cannot wait, a regulated private pharmacy is a legitimate option. The cost context is worth understanding before you decide; the Wegovy pricing page sets out what private treatment typically involves.

You can read more about how the NHS phased rollout works and who it currently covers on the semaglutide eligibility page.

What the consultation at nume actually involves

If you decide to explore the private route, the process at nume is straightforward. You complete a free medical consultation online, a GPhC-registered Independent Prescriber reads it the same day, and identity and weight are verified. There are no algorithms making the call. If the prescriber approves treatment, your order is dispatched the same working day if submitted before 12pm, arriving with DPD the next working day in plain, unbranded packaging.

Wegovy is not suitable during pregnancy, breastfeeding, or for anyone trying to conceive, and it is not licensed for under-18s. These are clinical exclusions rather than administrative ones, and the prescriber will confirm them during assessment. If you are already on treatment elsewhere and want to transfer, our prescribers will ask for evidence of your current dose. That is standard clinical practice, not an obstacle.

Our clinical team reviews every consultation personally. If you have questions before starting, the FAQs page covers the most common ones, or you can reach us directly via the contact page. When you are ready, you can speak to our prescribers through a free consultation.