As others are coming onto this thread for shared experience, I would note this was not my experience. The U.K. become noticeably more liberal towards homosexual people around 20 years ago, so it’s more common to find people aged 35-40 and under who were out from the off and accepted by their families. And then a swathe of late bloomer women in the community who left long heterosexual relationships and often have kids.
There will be mental health issues but these are prevalent in the general population now.
Where women have been successful, they often have security and houses (lesbians without kids tend to be higher earners than women with kids).
You do need to be strategic though. Five photos up, on a few sites, send a few likes a day. In chats, make sure you comment and then ask a question. If it’s going somewhere, arrange a date in 1-2 weeks. So move it on quickly. Stop chats that don’t go anywhere. Supplementing it with in person meets is probably good. But I dated in the pandemic and also liked the fact that with OLD, people were looking for relationships as their primary reason to be there. In a group, I would be less sure if that but now I’ve been out for a few years, I’d be less worried. Saturdays and Sundays in the mornings were when most people were looking to connect and chat, I found.
Good luck. I’d never dated women before and last dated pre the smart phone, but I had several dates, a fling and then met someone. Took less than a year. I think coming from a relationship can help as you are primed for how to coexist with someone else.