EMSEE CARE PROGRAM · WHAT TO EXPECT
What happens, from the moment you book.
Most women arrive here having already had the appointment that went nowhere. It is fair to want to know exactly what this one is before you commit to it. Everything below is what actually happens, in order, including what it costs at each point and what you are free to walk away from.
Your Menopause Assessment, bulk billed with Medicare
Around four days from booking to that appointment
You book the assessment yourself, from anywhere in Australia
Of menopause-only care
STEP BY STEP
From booking to the end of your first three months.
Before you book
There is nothing you need to work out first.
You do not need a referral, a diagnosis, or a theory about what is happening. You do not need to have decided whether you want hormone therapy. Not knowing whether this is menopause at all is one of the most common reasons women book. It is the question the appointment is designed to answer, not one you need an answer to beforehand.
If it helps, make a note of what changed and roughly when. Sleep, temperature, mood, periods, weight, concentration, libido, joint aches. A rough list is plenty.
The day you book
You choose a time that suits you.
Booking takes a few minutes online, or you can call 1300 883 405 and someone will do it with you. You choose the time rather than being offered the next available slot, and appointments are usually around four days out rather than months.
You will get a confirmation that says when your appointment is, who it is with, and what it costs, which in this case is nothing. Nothing else is asked of you before then.
Your appointment
The bulk billed Menopause Assessment.
It is by telehealth, so there is no travel and no day off work. The appointment is long enough to take a proper history rather than the four minutes of it that fit into a standard consultation, and the doctor will ask about the whole picture, including the parts that are awkward to raise and the parts you have been told are unrelated.
Every doctor here is a qualified GP who has then completed a mandatory menopause immersion program before seeing a single patient, built from what twenty thousand consultations a year teach us about which symptoms cluster together and which treatments follow. Emsee has done menopause care, and only menopause care, for more than 20 years.
It is bulk billed with Medicare. There is no gap, and no card is taken during the appointment.
At the end of the appointment
A recommendation, shaped with you.
Your doctor will set out what they think is going on and what the options are. Where hormone therapy is clinically appropriate, they will explain what it involves, including the risks alongside the benefits. Where you would rather not start there, the approaches that do not begin with hormones are set out as a real pathway rather than a consolation.
The decision is yours, and you can take it away and think about it. A letter goes to your usual GP on what was discussed and recommended, should you wish, so your own doctor is not working blind.
Only if you decide to go ahead
The Emsee Care Program starts, at $99 a month.
Nothing is charged before this point, and you are free to leave with the assessment and nothing else. If you do go ahead, the monthly fee covers your ongoing care: your GP appointments with no additional gap charged, your Clinical Care Team, your naturopath and nutritionist, medication management and delivery, and the Emsee App.
Medications and treatments are charged separately. The majority are available under the PBS, and you will know the price of anything before you start it.
Your first months
Reviews close together at the start, then spaced to your treatment.
Getting treatment right is a series of small adjustments rather than a single decision, so your early reviews sit close together and are timed to how your treatment is actually going rather than to a fixed six-month interval. If something is not working in week five, you say so in week five, and you are seen about it.
Between those appointments your Clinical Care Team is a person, on the phone or in the chat in the Emsee App, who already knows your plan and can answer the practical questions without you booking anything.
After that
Reviews settle into whatever your care needs.
Once your treatment is steady, reviews space out. Your medication keeps arriving at your door, your record stays in one place, and your GP keeps receiving letters on your progress if that is what you have asked for. If you want to stop the program, you can.
WORTH KNOWING
What this appointment is, and what it is not.
What it is
A proper history taken by a GP whose whole practice is menopause.
The appointment where the question of whether this is menopause gets answered.
Bulk billed with Medicare, with no gap and no card taken.
A recommendation you can take away, think about, and discuss with your own GP.
What it is not
A sales call. If a doctor here thinks you do not need treatment this month, you will be told that.
A commitment. The program starts only if treatment is recommended and you say yes.
The right setting for urgent or emergency care. That belongs with your GP or the nearest emergency department.
A replacement for your usual GP. We work alongside them, and we write to them.
QUESTIONS
Three things women ask before the first appointment.
Do I need to have my symptoms written down?
No, though a rough note of what changed and roughly when does make the appointment go further. The doctor will ask the questions either way, including the ones you might not think to raise.
Am I too young for this? I am in my early forties.
Symptoms in your thirties and forties are exactly the presentation most often put down to stress, and being told you are too early is one of the most common reasons women arrive here. The assessment costs nothing, and the question of whether this is menopause is what it exists to answer.
What if I decide not to go ahead?
Then nothing happens and nothing is charged. You keep the recommendation, your GP gets the letter if you asked for one, and you can come back later. You can take as much time as you need to decide.
See what the Emsee Care Program includes, and what it costs, or call 1300 883 405 and speak to someone.
THE FIRST STEP
An appointment that costs you nothing, and starts with someone listening.
Around four days away, by telehealth, with a doctor who does this and nothing else.