How old do you have to be to take Wegovy?

What the UK licence actually says about age

The MHRA-approved licence for Wegovy, based on the phase 3 STEP programme, sets 18 as the hard floor. The pivotal STEP 1 trial (published in the New England Journal of Medicine) enrolled adults only; the safety and efficacy data that underpinned approval did not include children or teenagers. That means prescribing Wegovy to anyone under 18 for weight management would be off-licence, and no registered UK prescriber at a regulated pharmacy will do it.

This is worth stating plainly because some families search this question after a younger person's weight has become a medical concern. There are separate NHS pathways for children and young people with obesity, none of which currently include Wegovy. If you want a full breakdown of how old you need to be to take Wegovy and why the age threshold is set where it is, that page explains the reasoning behind the licence decision. The appropriate route for an under-18 is a referral through their GP to a specialist paediatric service.

There is no maximum age written into the licence. Adults in their 60s, 70s and beyond have been assessed for treatment where their BMI and comorbidities meet the criteria. Clinical judgement matters more than a number: a prescriber will look at kidney function, other medicines, cardiovascular history and general frailty before recommending semaglutide in older patients. Our full Wegovy overview covers the licence and the populations it is intended for.

The rest of the eligibility picture for adults who do qualify by age

Turning 18 clears the age bar, but eligibility does not stop there. NICE's appraisal of semaglutide for weight management (TA875) sets out the clinical criteria that NHS commissioners use, and private prescribers apply the licensed thresholds from the SmPC: a BMI of 30 or above, or a BMI of 27 to 29.9 alongside at least one weight-related condition. That condition might be high blood pressure, dyslipidaemia, obstructive sleep apnoea, prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, among others. Under NICE guidance TA875, lower BMI thresholds typically apply for people of South Asian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Black African or African-Caribbean backgrounds.

Certain conditions rule treatment out regardless of age or BMI. A personal or close family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2 is a contraindication. Active or recurrent pancreatitis means a prescriber will not proceed. Pregnancy, breastfeeding and trying to conceive are all periods during which Wegovy is not recommended. These exclusions apply at 25 just as they do at 55.

If you are thinking about timing a first consultation, it is worth knowing that orders placed at nume by noon on a working day (whether that is a Tuesday after payday or a Monday before a bank holiday week) go to a prescriber for same-day clinical review.

Why there is no shortcut around the age rule

Wegovy is a Prescription-Only Medicine. UK law requires a valid prescription from a registered prescriber, and that prescriber must be satisfied that the medicine is appropriate for this individual patient. Any seller offering semaglutide without a proper prescription is operating outside the law, and the MHRA has warned publicly that counterfeit and illegally supplied weight-loss pens carry serious health risks, including hospitalisation. You can report suspect sellers via the MHRA's Yellow Card scheme.

For under-18s specifically, no amount of parental consent changes the licence status. A 17-year-old with a BMI of 35 and a comorbidity cannot be legally prescribed Wegovy by any UK prescriber acting within their professional obligations. The MHRA does not authorise it, and GPhC-registered pharmacies will not dispense it. That boundary exists because the long-term effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists on still-developing bodies are not established.

Questions about how frequently semaglutide is taken or how long treatment typically lasts are ones our prescribers address as part of the clinical conversation, not before it. That conversation is free at nume, and it is with a real clinician, not automated software. Our clinical team reviews every consultation personally.

Thinking about cost alongside eligibility

Once you have confirmed you meet the age and clinical thresholds, it is natural to think about what private treatment costs. Wegovy pricing in the UK varies by dose and provider, and if you are also getting to grips with how Wegovy units work and what the dose increments mean in practice, that page walks through the numbers clearly. The Wegovy cost page covers the current private market context honestly, including what a legitimate price should and should not include. At nume, one price covers the consultation, clinical prescription, treatment and next-working-day tracked delivery with no subscription attached. If you are curious whether you might qualify before committing to a consultation, the treatment overview page sets out the criteria clearly.