diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchContainer.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchContainer.java
index 2080d21649a..e08db06581e 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchContainer.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchContainer.java
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.testcontainers.containers.BindMode;
 import org.testcontainers.containers.GenericContainer;
+import org.testcontainers.containers.wait.strategy.AbstractWaitStrategy;
+import org.testcontainers.containers.wait.strategy.HttpWaitStrategy;
 import org.testcontainers.containers.wait.strategy.Wait;
 import org.testcontainers.utility.ComparableVersion;
 import org.testcontainers.utility.DockerImageName;
@@ -15,6 +17,8 @@
 import java.security.KeyStore;
 import java.security.cert.Certificate;
 import java.security.cert.CertificateFactory;
+import java.time.Duration;
+import java.time.Instant;
 import java.util.Optional;
 
 import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
@@ -75,6 +79,8 @@ public class ElasticsearchContainer extends GenericContainer<ElasticsearchContai
 
     private String certPath = "";
 
+    private Duration healthCheckTimeout = Duration.ofSeconds(60);
+
     /**
      * Create an Elasticsearch Container by passing the full docker image name
      *
@@ -113,15 +119,11 @@ public ElasticsearchContainer(final DockerImageName dockerImageName) {
             BindMode.READ_ONLY
         );
         addExposedPorts(ELASTICSEARCH_DEFAULT_PORT, ELASTICSEARCH_DEFAULT_TCP_PORT);
-        this.isAtLeastMajorVersion8 =
-            new ComparableVersion(dockerImageName.getVersionPart()).isGreaterThanOrEqualTo("8.0.0");
-        // regex that
-        //   matches 8.3 JSON logging with started message and some follow up content within the message field
-        //   matches 8.0 JSON logging with no whitespace between message field and content
-        //   matches 7.x JSON logging with whitespace between message field and content
-        //   matches 6.x text logging with node name in brackets and just a 'started' message till the end of the line
-        String regex = ".*(\"message\":\\s?\"started[\\s?|\"].*|] started\n$)";
-        setWaitStrategy(Wait.forLogMessage(regex, 1));
+        String versionPart = dockerImageName.getVersionPart();
+        this.isAtLeastMajorVersion8 = new ComparableVersion(versionPart).isGreaterThanOrEqualTo("8.0.0");
+        // Wait strategy is deferred to configure() so it can read the final env map
+        // (e.g. password and SSL settings that the user may set after construction).
+        setWaitStrategy(null);
         if (isAtLeastMajorVersion8) {
             withPassword(ELASTICSEARCH_DEFAULT_PASSWORD);
             withCertPath(DEFAULT_CERT_PATH);
@@ -209,17 +211,67 @@ public ElasticsearchContainer withCertPath(String certPath) {
         return this;
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public ElasticsearchContainer withStartupTimeout(Duration startupTimeout) {
+        this.healthCheckTimeout = startupTimeout;
+        if (getWaitStrategy() != null) {
+            getWaitStrategy().withStartupTimeout(startupTimeout);
+        }
+        return self();
+    }
+
     String getCertPath() {
         return certPath;
     }
 
+    @Override
+    protected void configure() {
+        super.configure();
+        configureWaitStrategy();
+    }
+
+    private void configureWaitStrategy() {
+        if (getWaitStrategy() != null) {
+            return;
+        }
+        setWaitStrategy(
+            new AbstractWaitStrategy() {
+                @Override
+                protected void waitUntilReady() {
+                    String password = getEnvMap().get("ELASTIC_PASSWORD");
+                    // Wait for port 9200 to accept TCP connections first, so that
+                    // getHttpScheme()'s curl probe always finds a live socket and no
+                    // version-based heuristics are needed.
+                    // Track the deadline so both steps share the same total timeout.
+                    Instant deadline = Instant.now().plus(startupTimeout);
+                    Wait.forListeningPort().withStartupTimeout(startupTimeout).waitUntilReady(waitStrategyTarget);
+                    Duration remaining = Duration.between(Instant.now(), deadline);
+                    HttpWaitStrategy inner = "https".equals(getHttpScheme())
+                        ? Wait.forHttps("/_cluster/health").forPort(ELASTICSEARCH_DEFAULT_PORT).allowInsecure()
+                        : Wait.forHttp("/_cluster/health").forPort(ELASTICSEARCH_DEFAULT_PORT);
+                    if (password != null) {
+                        inner = inner.withBasicCredentials("elastic", password);
+                    }
+                    inner
+                        .forStatusCode(200)
+                        .forResponsePredicate(body -> {
+                            return body.contains("\"status\":\"green\"") || body.contains("\"status\":\"yellow\"");
+                        })
+                        .withStartupTimeout(remaining.isNegative() ? Duration.ZERO : remaining)
+                        .waitUntilReady(waitStrategyTarget);
+                }
+            }
+                .withStartupTimeout(healthCheckTimeout)
+        );
+    }
+
     public String getHttpHostAddress() {
         return getHost() + ":" + getMappedPort(ELASTICSEARCH_DEFAULT_PORT);
     }
 
     /**
-     * Checks env first if this implies HTTP/HTTPS.
-     * Otherwise, detects the scheme used by Elasticsearch using <code>curl</code>
+     * Detects the HTTP scheme used by Elasticsearch. Respects explicit env-var config first;
+     * when ambiguous, probes the live socket with curl (requires a running container on port 9200).
      *
      * @return "http" or "https"
      */
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/testcontainers/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchContainerTest.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/testcontainers/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchContainerTest.java
index 52cd78b4a34..00494948f1d 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/testcontainers/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchContainerTest.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/test/java/org/testcontainers/elasticsearch/ElasticsearchContainerTest.java
@@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ class ElasticsearchContainerTest {
         .parse("docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch")
         .withTag(ELASTICSEARCH_VERSION);
 
+    private static final DockerImageName ELASTICSEARCH_LATEST_IMAGE = DockerImageName.parse(
+        "docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:9.2.4"
+    );
+
     /**
      * Elasticsearch default username, when secured
      */
@@ -162,6 +166,23 @@ void elasticsearchVersion83() throws IOException {
         }
     }
 
+    @Test
+    void clusterHealthIsAtLeastYellowAfterStart() throws IOException {
+        try (ElasticsearchContainer container = new ElasticsearchContainer(ELASTICSEARCH_LATEST_IMAGE)) {
+            container.start();
+
+            Response response = getClient(container).performRequest(new Request("GET", "/_cluster/health"));
+            assertThat(response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode()).isEqualTo(200);
+            String body = EntityUtils.toString(response.getEntity());
+            assertThat(body)
+                .as("Cluster health status should be at least yellow after container start")
+                .satisfiesAnyOf(
+                    b -> assertThat(b).contains("\"status\":\"yellow\""),
+                    b -> assertThat(b).contains("\"status\":\"green\"")
+                );
+        }
+    }
+
     @Test
     void elasticsearchOssImage() throws IOException {
         try (