Can Anyone Get Wegovy, or Are the Criteria More Specific Than You Think?

The myth: if your BMI is high enough, Wegovy is yours

This is the most common misunderstanding our prescribers encounter. People see the BMI figures in a headline and assume the medicine follows automatically. It does not. Wegovy is a Prescription-Only Medicine, which means no pharmacy (online or otherwise) can dispense it without a prescriber first assessing whether it is suitable for you specifically. The BMI number is a starting point, not a green light.

The full picture of how Wegovy works matters here too. Because semaglutide affects gastric emptying and appetite signalling, it interacts with other conditions and medicines in ways that a quick BMI check will never reveal. A genuine clinical consultation exists precisely to catch those interactions before, not after, treatment begins.

So while the licensed eligibility criteria (BMI 30 or above, or 27 or above with a qualifying condition) describe who may be considered, a prescriber's judgement decides who should actually start. Those two things are different, and any service that blurs them is skipping a step that matters for your safety.

Who the licence actually covers, and who it does not

The UK licence for Wegovy covers adults. It is not licensed for anyone under 18. Pregnancy, breastfeeding and actively trying to conceive are all situations where Wegovy is not recommended, and a prescriber will ask about these during assessment. The same applies if you are planning surgery in the near future, your anaesthetist needs to know about GLP-1 medicines beforehand, and timing matters.

Certain medical histories require careful discussion rather than an automatic yes or no. A personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma, or a condition called Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2, means Wegovy is contraindicated. A history of pancreatitis also requires a prescriber to weigh the risks carefully. These are not reasons to avoid asking; they are reasons to ask properly, with a clinician who can see your full picture.

Women using oral contraceptives who are considering semaglutide-based treatment should know that NHS guidance does not currently flag the same pill-absorption concern for semaglutide that applies to tirzepatide, but contraception and wash-out periods before trying to conceive are still part of the conversation. If you are unsure whether your circumstances make you suitable, our page on who can use Wegovy works through the key eligibility questions in plain language. The NHS England guidance on weight management injections covers this in plain language and is worth reading before your consultation.

NHS access versus private prescription: the realistic picture

Whether you can get Wegovy on the NHS is a separate question from whether you are clinically eligible for it. NICE recommends semaglutide for weight management only within a specialist weight management service, for a maximum of two years, and the BMI threshold for NHS prescribing is generally 35 or above with at least one weight-related comorbidity, higher than the medicine's licensed threshold. Waiting lists for those services are commonly long, and not everyone who meets the criteria will be seen quickly.

Private prescribing follows the licensed criteria rather than the NHS commissioning criteria, which is why many people who cannot access Wegovy through their GP can still be assessed through a regulated online pharmacy. You can verify any online pharmacy's registration in about 30 seconds by searching the name on the GPhC pharmacy register, a quick habit worth building before sharing any medical information. For more on what treatment might look like through a private route, the Wegovy cost context page explains what legitimate pricing typically includes.

What happens if you are not eligible, and what the assessment involves

Not everyone who applies will be approved, and that is by design. A prescriber who approves every application is not doing their job. At nume, a GPhC-registered Independent Prescriber reads every consultation personally, your answers do not go through an automated scoring system. If treatment is not suitable at this point, you will be told why, and you will not be charged.

The assessment looks at your BMI, your relevant medical history, your current medications, and any conditions that might affect how you tolerate or respond to semaglutide. It takes most people a few minutes to complete. If you take supplements alongside prescription medicines, our guidance on combining turmeric with Wegovy is a good example of the kind of interaction detail the assessment is designed to surface. For those who do meet the criteria and are clinically suitable, the pathway from consultation to treatment is straightforward: same-day clinical review, same-day dispatch if approved before 12pm on a weekday, and free next-working-day tracked delivery. The NHS medicines page for semaglutide gives a clear overview of what the treatment involves, and reading it before you start is a sensible step.