Women’s Reproductive Health Guide

Timely access to medication, hormone testing, and specialist services can make a huge difference for women’s reproductive health. This makes telehealth providers a top choice, if you are looking for a confidential way to take initial steps towards family planning, or indeed, contraception or menopause hormone treatment. In this MediCompare guide, I’ve broken down some of the most common reproductive concerns and detailed where you can get high-quality help and what to expect. I’ve mentioned some telehealth providers I have already vetted and also provided some advice on how to find bulk-billed services.

Your first reproductive healthcare needs are often contraception-based. Thankfully, these needs are covered by most general telehealth providers I have vetted for MediCompare and does not normally require additional services.

One of the best options is to have a video or phone chat with a GP, AHPRAregistered doctor or nurse practitioner who can explain your options from pills and IUDs to emergency contraception.

The highly-rated Hola Health is one of my go-to telehealth providers with its 24/7 service, fast 15minute turnarounds and bulkbilled options. Instant Consult is a similarly easy and fast option. But if you know what you want and just need basic advice and a script filled, you could also go straight to Chemist Warehouse, Terry White Chemmart or a similar pharmacy-based telehealth service.

All of these services offer repeat scripts and you can also contact them for follow-ups or side-effect monitoring. When choosing your provider, check on bulk-billing options and that they partner with a pharmacy or offer priority delivery, if necessary.

While many telehealth providers offer women’s health services, most of them do not offer hormone testing or access to specialists, for example for reproductivehealth concerns like polycysticovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, menstrual irregularities or infertility.

But they do offer referrals for hormone tests, mammograms, blood test, ultrasounds, and specialist visits. The benefits of using a telehealth provider is the speediness of the appointment and having the electronic referral sent straight to the provider of your choice. The downside is that you often have to research which service is in your area and get referrals for specialist before the consult. Of course, some telehealth doctors may be willing and able to give you names, but often, your local GP will have a more established network in your area.

When you are looking into your reproductive health because you are starting your own family, accurate hormone profiling is often the first step. This includes evaluating thyroid, estrogen, progesterone, LH/FSH levels. Some services such as Instant Scripts and Hub Health let you order a full hormone panel after a brief consult, the former does so at very low cost, if you do not require a consult. This means you’ll get the pathology request straight to your inbox, speeding up the process.

Results are generally uploaded securely to the telehealth platform, so your clinician or a doctor of your choice can discuss them in a followup video call. You could ask for hormone tests and a specialist referral at the same time, speeding up your next step towards planning a family.

The actual fertility consultation and treatment are, of course, subject to in-person consultations. But a surprising amount of the legwork, such as booking ultrasounds and hormone tests and the specialist, can be done online. In fact, many fertility clinics offer the assessments of your records and ongoing consultations with a coordinating specialist via telehealth, too.

Again, the first step may be a hormone panel to have a snapshot of your reproductive health and to assess whether you have started perimenopause yet. This can be done easily and affordably via Instant Scripts and similar telehealth providers.

If your hormones are showing you need further assistance, the next step will be to speak to a menopause specialist, women’s health specialist or an endocrinologist. (Possibly all three.) Some telehealth providers like Healthcare from Anywhere offer faster and cheaper access to menopause-specific professionals than in-person clinics. If you want to discuss Menopausal Hormone Therapy (MHT) other options, it is crucial to speak to a specialist – and sometimes to get a second opinion.

I have written an article for MediCompare on the subject, feel free to check it out in the resources section.

1. Be clear on your needs. This will help you find the right service. Often, the services offering fully bulk-billed scripts do not offer specialised services, for example.
2. Choose the right provider. You can use MediCompare’s comparison tool to filter providers for bulkbilling, fast appointments and medication delivery speed.
3. Prepare well. Before booking, make sure you have either written down some notes about your questions and general health history. You can also upload this to My Health Record.
4. Maximise your consultation outcome. Listen well, come prepared, and take notes. Check you have understood all the details of the next steps to take.
5. Follow-up promptly. If you need to contact the pharmacy, test lab, or specialist yourself, get onto it straight away.
6. Schedule a follow-up. If you aren’t seeing a specialist, it’s a good idea to schedule a follow-up with the same doctor, telehealth provider or your GP. This will help you get the best outcome.

Access to specific women’s health services via telehealth makes taking acre of yourself much faster and easier. As with most other telehealth services, doing your research and being prepared pays off. Telehealth does require you to take greater agency and drive the process along, as your GP is not overseeing and managing it.

It can be helpful to request for all results and consultation notes to be shared with your GP’s practice and check if a review may be advised at any point. For example, MHT requires regular mammograms and hormone tests to ensure you continue getting the bests results and the medication’s dosage is effective and safe for you.

The bottom line is that telehealth can speed up and make the process easier, but only if you are prepared to do some of the researching, planning, and organising. You can use MediCompare to compare providers and read verified reviews. It’ll help you select the service that suits your needs best.

This article is for informational purposes only and is no substitute for professional medical advice. Please choose your provider with care and consult a qualified health professional for any specific concerns.