Who Can Get Mounjaro — and What the Eligibility Criteria Actually Mean

You've looked up the BMI number and you're not sure where you stand

The starting point is the licensed threshold: a BMI of 30 or above, or 27 or above with at least one weight-related condition. Weight-related conditions that count include type 2 diabetes, raised blood pressure, dyslipidaemia (high cholesterol or triglycerides), obstructive sleep apnoea, and cardiovascular disease. Osteoarthritis and prediabetes are also commonly discussed with prescribers, though the SmPC focuses on the conditions above.

If you're close to a threshold, it's worth using the NHS BMI calculator for an accurate figure before your consultation, because BMI calculations based on rounded heights or weights can shift things slightly. And if your background is South Asian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Black African or African-Caribbean, NICE guidance and NHS clinical practice both recognise lower thresholds, typically 2.5 kg/m² below the standard figures. That means a BMI of 27.5 may be sufficient if you have a qualifying condition, and 27 without one may still prompt a clinical conversation.

Our Mounjaro BMI guide walks through exactly how the thresholds work in practice, including the ethnic-background adjustments in full. If you want a broader overview of who can take Mounjaro, including the health and lifestyle factors a prescriber considers, that's a useful page to read before your consultation. The key point is that a number alone tells you relatively little, the prescriber's assessment of your whole situation is what counts.

You've been told you don't qualify on the NHS, that's a different question from whether you qualify at all

NHS access to Mounjaro is being rolled out in phases, with strict criteria layered on top of the licensed eligibility. The first cohort required a BMI of 40 or above alongside four or more of five specific conditions. A second cohort covering BMI 35 to 39.9 with four or more conditions became active in June 2026. These thresholds are far narrower than the medicine's licence.

Private prescribing follows the licensed criteria (the ones in the paragraph above) not the NHS phases. So someone turned away from an NHS waiting list at a BMI of 33 with high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes may still be a reasonable candidate for a private prescription, subject to full clinical review. The two routes operate on different frameworks, and conflating them is where a lot of confusion comes from.

If you'd like to understand the NHS rollout in more detail, the NHS England page on weight-management injections sets out the phased schedule clearly. For a private route, how to get Mounjaro through a private pharmacy is worth reading alongside this page.

Situations where Mounjaro is not suitable, what the prescriber will want to know

There are circumstances where a prescriber will not issue a Mounjaro prescription, whatever the BMI. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, and actively trying to conceive all fall into this category. The medicine is not licensed for anyone under 18. A personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 2 (MEN2) is a contraindication. A history of pancreatitis also requires careful prescriber discussion, since pancreatitis is a known but infrequent risk with GLP-1 class medicines.

There are also interactions and adjustments worth raising. Women taking the oral contraceptive pill should know that tirzepatide can reduce pill absorption in the first four weeks of treatment and for four weeks after each dose increase, a non-oral method of contraception during those periods is recommended. If you're on levothyroxine, it's sensible to look at how Mounjaro interacts with levothyroxine before your consultation, so you can raise it with the prescriber directly. Magnesium supplementation is another thing patients ask about, our page on taking magnesium alongside Mounjaro covers the relevant considerations.

The consultation is specifically the moment to disclose everything: current medicines, supplements, recent diagnoses, surgical history. A prescriber can only make a safe decision with the full picture in front of them. That's also, incidentally, why a clinical review by a real person matters, not a tick-box form that doesn't read the answers together.

What the assessment at a private regulated pharmacy actually involves

At nume, the process starts with a free consultation: you answer clinical questions about your health, weight history, current medicines and relevant conditions. That information is then personally reviewed (the same day) by a GPhC-registered Independent Prescriber. Not software. A prescriber reads your responses and makes a clinical judgement. Identity is verified by photo ID, and weight is confirmed on a live video check.

If treatment is approved and you order before noon on a working day, your prescription is dispatched the same day from our GPhC-registered pharmacy (registration 9012878, verifiable on the GPhC register), delivered free the next working day by DPD in plain, unbranded packaging. The single price covers the consultation, prescription, medicine and delivery. There are no subscriptions and no auto-renewals. Every repeat order goes through the same clinical re-review. That's a meaningful difference from a service that ships automatically.

If you're weighing up the cost side of things, the Eli Lilly UK price change context is useful background. Then, when you're ready, you can speak to our prescribers through the free consultation and find out whether Mounjaro is the right fit for your situation.