The Wegovy consent form process: what to expect before your prescription

Step 1, the clinical consultation that makes consent meaningful

Consent without a proper assessment is legally and clinically hollow. Before any consent question is posed, a prescriber needs to establish whether Wegovy is appropriate for you at all. In practice this means collecting your current weight and height to calculate BMI (the licensed threshold is BMI 30 or above, or 27 or above if you have a weight-related condition such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or obstructive sleep apnoea), reviewing your medical history for contraindications, and checking your current medicines for interactions. At our pharmacy, this is done by a real clinician who reads your submitted answers and, where required, checks your semaglutide eligibility against your Summary Care Record and live weight verification.

Only once the prescriber is satisfied that the medicine is appropriate does the consent stage carry any weight. A consultation that skips straight to consent is a red flag. Legitimate services do not work that way.

Step 2, the information you are given before consenting

Informed consent means you have been given, and understood, the material facts about the treatment. For Wegovy, that typically covers several areas. First, how the medicine works: semaglutide activates GLP-1 receptors involved in appetite regulation and gastric emptying, which reduces hunger and slows how quickly the stomach empties. Second, the dose schedule: treatment begins at a low starting dose and is titrated upward over several months by your prescriber; the 2.4mg weekly dose is the standard maintenance level, though the MHRA has now also approved a 7.2mg dose for eligible adults. Third, the side-effect profile, led by gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, loose stools, constipation and reflux, which are most common after starting or after each dose increase, and our page on semaglutide cons goes into more detail on what to expect. The NHS medicines page for semaglutide lists these in full and is worth reading before your consultation. Fourth, the serious but rare risks (acute pancreatitis is one that the MHRA has highlighted specifically) and the symptoms that require urgent medical attention.

Your prescriber should also tell you that Wegovy is not licensed for use in pregnancy or breastfeeding, that it is not recommended if you are trying to conceive, and that it is not licensed for anyone under 18. These are not afterthoughts; they are part of the information that makes consent valid.

Step 3, contraception, other medicines and special circumstances

Two practical areas often catch people by surprise during the consent process. The first is oral contraception. NHS guidance notes that semaglutide slows gastric emptying, which can in principle affect how oral medicines are absorbed. For that reason, your prescriber will typically ask whether you take a combined or progestogen-only pill and may advise adding a barrier method for a period around dose changes. It is worth raising this if the prescriber does not, because overlooking it is a common omission. The second area is surgery. If you are due to have a procedure, you must tell both the surgical team and the anaesthetist that you are taking semaglutide, delayed gastric emptying raises aspiration risk under general anaesthesia. Fasting guidance for people on GLP-1 medicines is different from standard pre-operative instructions. If you want to weigh up what the treatment involves before your consultation, our page covering the pros and cons of Wegovy brings together the key considerations that tend to come up in prescribing discussions, and for an even deeper look at both sides of the medicine, our detailed guide to the pros and cons of Wegovy for weight loss is a good place to read before you speak to a prescriber.

If you take any medicines that affect blood sugar, your prescriber will also want to review those, since semaglutide can alter glycaemic control. This is not a reason to avoid treatment, it is a reason to have a proper clinical conversation before you start.

Step 4, what happens after consent, and what ongoing review looks like

Signing a consent document is the beginning of your clinical relationship with the prescriber, not the end of it. At nume, every repeat order is clinically re-reviewed. Dose increases require evidence, a prescriber does not simply approve the next pen because the previous one arrived. This matters because weight-loss treatment is long-term: NICE's appraisal of semaglutide (TA875) recommends the medicine within specialist services for a maximum of two years, with a review if less than five percent of body weight is lost after six months at the maintenance dose.

One practical note on timing: if you order on a Monday before 12pm, your prescription (once approved) is dispatched that day and arrives on Tuesday. That rhythm matters if you are mid-cycle on your dose schedule and a bank holiday falls nearby; a brief pause at a stable dose is far safer than an abrupt stop, and your prescriber can advise. Anyone weighing up whether to begin treatment may also find it helpful to read about the cons of Wegovy before committing, so there are no surprises once treatment starts. For a full picture of what the process costs and what a single transparent price covers, the treatment overview page has the detail. If you have outstanding questions before committing, the FAQs page covers the questions our prescribers hear most often.

The consent process, done properly, protects you. It is also how a good prescriber and a good service build the clinical relationship that makes long-term treatment safer and more effective. When you are ready to begin, you can start your free consultation and a GPhC-registered prescriber will review your answers the same day.