Contraception
Contraception that fits your life
Choosing contraception is a decision about how you want to live, and it should be made with someone who has actually assessed whether a method is safe for you. Methods needing a procedure are referred. Everything that can be done properly online is done here.
Fully online. Video consultation with Dr Qurbain, medication dispensed to your door, and no need to travel anywhere.
Want a method that fits your life, properly assessed?
If any of these sound familiar, this consultation was built for you.
You want to choose, not be handed the default.
You want someone to check a method is actually safe for you.
You are tired of repeat prescriptions with no review.
You want a private conversation, without a waiting room.
The eligibility assessment is the whole job.
Every method has conditions that make it unsafe, and some of them are easy to miss in a questionnaire. Migraine with aura is the clearest example: it is an absolute bar to the combined method, many women do not know whether they have had aura, and nobody finds out unless someone explains what aura actually is and asks properly.
So we do. Aura is explained — visual, sensory or speech disturbance before the headache — and your answer is recorded in your own words. The same care goes into clot risk, your blood pressure, your medicines and your smoking. That assessment is what makes a remote service safe here.
How it works
Four steps, all from home
Your blood pressure, on camera
A reading from a validated home monitor, shown to the doctor during the consultation. The combined method is never started or continued without a recorded blood pressure. Because the reading is taken at home, the home threshold applies — 150/95 or above rules the combined method out, which is lower than the clinic figure.
Full eligibility assessment
Migraine and aura asked about explicitly. Clot history, personal and family. Smoking and vaping. Height and weight measured. Medicines checked for the ones that reduce contraceptive effectiveness. Cervical screening status. Your eligibility category is recorded.
A private conversation
Every consultation includes a safeguarding and coercion screen, asked sensitively, with you alone and confirmed to be unobserved — whether the decision is genuinely yours, and whether anyone is pressuring or controlling you. If something is wrong, your safety comes before any prescription.
Your method, and the rules for it
An initial supply with written method-specific instructions — missed pill rules, what to do after vomiting or diarrhoea, what bleeding to expect. Reviewed at three months, then annually. Your GP is told the method, the assessment, your blood pressure and the review date.
The two numbers that decide eligibility
Because your reading is taken at home rather than in a clinic, the home threshold is the one that applies to you — and it is lower.
150/95
At home — the one that applies here
A home reading of 150 over 95 or above rules out the combined method, even though it is below the clinic figure.
160/100
In a clinic
The clinic threshold. Quoted for comparison, because it is the figure most people have seen.
Any
Migraine with aura
Current migraine with aura is an absolute bar to the combined method. Aura is explained to you properly, and your answer recorded in your own words.
Never
Without a reading
The combined method is never started or continued without a recorded blood pressure. No exceptions.
What we can provide
Ongoing methods
- The combined method — pill, patch or vaginal ring — where your eligibility assessment permits it
- Tailored or continuous regimens discussed, rather than assumed
- The progestogen-only pill, which suits many women for whom the combined method is not safe — including those with migraine with aura
- Perimenopausal contraception reviewed alongside menopause care
Emergency contraception
- Oral emergency contraception where it is clinically appropriate, with the timing limits, how well it works and the effect of your weight all explained honestly
- You are always told that a copper coil is the most effective option, and referred for it if you want it
- Ongoing contraception and STI testing addressed at the same consultation, not left for later
Referred, not fudged
- Coils, hormonal and copper — referred for fitting
- The contraceptive implant — referred for fitting
- The contraceptive injection — referred for administration
- A remote service cannot perform a procedure, and we would rather refer you than pretend otherwise
Honest about effectiveness, and about what it does not cover
No method is perfect, and the figures that matter are the ones for typical use, not perfect use — those are the numbers you are given. Irregular bleeding is common in the first few months with most methods and usually settles. And one thing worth stating plainly: hormonal contraception gives no protection against sexually transmitted infections. Condom advice is given to everyone, and testing is advised where there is any risk.
What you need to know, and what to act on
Side effects, and what to do about them
Read
Most women use these methods for years without a problem. There is a short list of symptoms that should prompt you to stop and seek help rather than wait for a review.
- Clot symptoms — one-sided leg pain or swelling, chest pain on breathing, breathlessness, coughing blood. Urgent same-day assessment; 999 if severe.
- Migraine with aura starting on the combined method — stop immediately and contact the service. It changes what is safe for you.
- Sudden severe headache, visual loss or one-sided weakness — emergency assessment.
- Missed pill and late patch or ring rules are given to you in writing, specific to your method, because the rules differ.
- Vomiting or severe diarrhoea can stop the pill working — what to do is in your written plan.
- Some medicines, including certain anti-epileptics and St John’s wort, reduce effectiveness and change which method is right.
- Breast and cervical awareness is discussed, and overdue screening is encouraged.
When we will not prescribe
Who this service cannot treat, and why
Read
Assessment uses the UK Medical Eligibility Criteria, updated in December 2025. Where your category rules a method out, you are told which method, why, and what the alternatives are.
- Current migraine with aura — an absolute bar to the combined method
- Blood pressure 150/95 or above at home, or 160/100 in a clinic
- Smoking 15 or more a day and aged 35 or over
- A current or past clot, or a known clotting mutation
- Vascular disease, or past heart attack, stroke or TIA
- Complicated heart valve or congenital heart disease, or cardiomyopathy with impaired function
- Currently being treated for breast cancer — all hormonal methods
- Severe liver disease or a liver tumour
- Breastfeeding and less than six weeks after birth
- Unexplained vaginal bleeding not yet investigated — assessed first
- Refusing a blood pressure or BMI measurement where the combined method is requested
- Pregnancy, or pregnancy not reasonably excluded
- Anyone under 18 — absolute. Referred to a GP or a young people’s sexual health service, which is better placed to assess competence and safeguarding
Some conditions are a caution rather than a bar — aura more than five years ago, diabetes with complications, reduced mobility, multiple cardiovascular risk factors, or breast cancer where treatment is finished. Where those apply we prescribe only exceptionally, with the reasoning recorded and after discussion with your GP or a specialist.
Reviewed with a blood pressure, every time
The full review and monitoring schedule
Read
At three months after starting the combined method we check your blood pressure, how well you are tolerating it, your bleeding pattern, your adherence and your eligibility. Annually after that we check your blood pressure against the home threshold, your BMI, your eligibility under the current criteria, migraine and clot risk, vaping status, safeguarding, and that your cervical screening is up to date. Any new migraine with aura, new medicine, significant weight change or new risk factor triggers immediate reassessment — and the combined method is never continued without a current blood pressure.
How your method is reviewed
Supply never exceeds the interval to the next review.
Baseline
Full eligibility assessment
Blood pressure on camera, migraine and aura asked about explicitly, clot risk, smoking and vaping, BMI measured, medicines checked.
Month 3
First review
Blood pressure, tolerability, bleeding pattern, adherence and eligibility.
Yearly
Annual review
Blood pressure against the home threshold, BMI, eligibility under current criteria, migraine and clot risk, safeguarding, and cervical screening.
Any change
Immediate reassessment
A new migraine with aura, a new medicine, a significant weight change or a new risk factor triggers reassessment straight away rather than waiting.
Our approach follows current national guidance. See the guidelines we work to.
Initial consultation
Your initial consultation is paid when you book, before the consultation, and is charged whether or not treatment is prescribed. A follow-up review is paid when it happens, and only if you or your doctor decide you need one.
Joining the waiting list is free. Medicine, if prescribed, is bought separately from the dispensing pharmacy and its cost is confirmed with you before you pay for each supply.
Video consultation with the doctor, full eligibility assessment, safeguarding screen, and written method-specific instructions. Medication, where prescribed, is dispensed separately by a registered pharmacy and priced before you pay.