It depends where you are in the country Honeybean as to whether you can get them on the NHS. Certain GP's have their own preferences for hrt and certain areas have certain products on their formulary list for prescribing. I think there is an issue with oestrogel and utro in certain parts of Scotland.
I can get them easily in Northern Ireland and I asked for what I wanted after trying a few. It has been the best combo for me, I tried 6 others and they didn't work. I like the flexibility of them because you can play around with doses without having to keep going back to your GP to represcribe higher levels or lover levels of patches or pills. You just up the pumps of gel or drop the pumps of gel. Obviously if you are upping then you will need more gel quicker but its easier to play around get a level and then tell the doctor. That's what I did anyway and I was lucky cos my doctor goes with what I say but some GP's can be right pains in the arses! It really depends how knowledgeable, flexible your GP is and how you get on with them.