Prescription history UK: NHS App, GP or clinic

Your NHS prescription history sits in your GP record. Anyone in the UK can ask their surgery for a copy, and it’s normally free. In England the NHS App shows part of it. Got it from an online clinic? It may not be on your GP record, so ask the clinic.

The dates matter if you think you have post-SSRI sexual dysfunction, post-finasteride syndrome or post-Accutane syndrome. These are problems that can last after stopping an antidepressant, finasteride (for hair loss or the prostate) or isotretinoin (for acne). They’re more than sexual problems: the checklist doctors and researchers proposed in 2022 also lists emotional numbing and trouble with concentration and memory.

Your GP will want the medicine, the dose and the dates. So does the form when you report a side effect. They’re hard to remember years later, but they’re written down.

Tim took finasteride for a prostate problem for nearly 17 years before he connected it with his symptoms. In this extract he explains why it took so long. If you’ve only just made that link, finding your dates comes next.

Play video: Tim on years of finasteride

Can I see my prescription history in the NHS App?

Partly, if you’re registered with a GP surgery in England. Old medicines are the most likely to be missing.

From 16, you can read new entries in your GP record as your surgery adds them. The NHS film below shows what you’ll see. Check three screens:

• Prescriptions lists your repeat medicines. One-off courses and medicines you haven’t had for a long time may not appear.
• Documents holds letters, including those a hospital or specialist sent your GP.
• Allergies and adverse reactions shows any bad reaction to a medicine your surgery has noted. Look for your side effect there.

For your whole record, the app’s help says to contact your surgery.

In Wales, the NHS Wales App can show your health records if your GP practice has switched this on.

Play video: Your online GP health record

How do I get a full copy of my GP records?

Ask your surgery for one. Officially, it’s a subject access request: you’re asking to see what an organisation holds about you.

The ICO, the UK body that looks after your data rights, says anyone can make one. You don’t need a solicitor. You can ask online, by email or letter, by phone or at the desk.

The ICO’s online service writes the email for you. Some surgeries also let you ask for information in the NHS App, under Appointments, then Request a letter or information.

As of October 2026, the ICO says the surgery usually has a month to reply. It can take longer for a complex request, but it must tell you within that month. It may ask for ID first, because this is health information. The month starts only once it has what it needs.

What if my GP never prescribed it?

Then ask whoever did. Your GP record may not include it.

Isotretinoin is usually prescribed by a skin specialist, the NHS says. Hair-loss treatments such as finasteride aren’t all available on the NHS, so you may have paid privately, perhaps online.

An online prescriber contacts your GP when you’ve agreed to it, says the pharmacy regulator. If you didn’t, your GP may never have heard about it.

1

Your GP

Check the NHS App, then ask the surgery for a copy.

2

A hospital or skin specialist

Ask that hospital or clinic. Their letters to your GP may also be in the app.

3

An online clinic

Ask the clinic for your prescribing history. The same request works there.

Can’t trace an NHS prescription? Try the NHS Business Services Authority, the part of the NHS that processes prescriptions. It takes the same kind of request for “prescription information” and says it replies within a month.

Kept an old box? By law, the pharmacy label on a prescribed medicine shows when it was supplied and the pharmacy’s name and address. That’s a date, and somewhere else to ask.

What can I do?

These medicines help many people. If you still take one, any change is a decision for you and your prescriber. Don’t stop an antidepressant suddenly. For finasteride and isotretinoin, follow what the leaflet says.

If you think you have PSSD, PFS or PAS, take your dates to your GP. Write them like this: “Finasteride 1 mg a day from June 2015, last tablet March 2016.”

Many people say it took time to be taken seriously. You can report it without a doctor agreeing.

Put the same dates in a Yellow Card report to the MHRA, the UK medicines regulator. It asks for your treatment dates and whether a side effect continued after stopping.

Missing a date? Report anyway: rough dates are fine, as our guide to reporting a side effect years later explains. Unsure the medicine was to blame? See how doctors judge whether a medicine caused it.

Play video: Yellow Card - How to report

Report it: it helps everyone

A doctor’s note helps you. A report to the medicines regulator helps everyone else: it is how patterns get noticed.

• No proof needed. A suspicion is enough, even years after stopping.
• Where: the Yellow Card scheme in the UK, MedWatch in the US. Our guides cover PSSD, finasteride and isotretinoin.
• Use the right words. If symptoms continued after stopping, write Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (MedDRA 10086208) for an SSRI or SNRI, or Post 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor syndrome (MedDRA 10082430) for finasteride. For isotretinoin there’s no term yet, so say the symptoms continued after stopping.

Our reporting guide walks you through it

What else do people ask?

Can my surgery charge me or ignore me? It can charge only in a few cases, the ICO says: for extra copies, or for a request that’s “manifestly unfounded or excessive”. In plain words, clearly unreasonable or excessive. If a month passes with no reply, send a reminder. If that fails, complain to the ICO.

What if a medicine is missing or wrong? Tell your GP surgery. The NHS film gives a missing medicine as an example.

Can I ask for someone else’s records? Yes, if you can show you have their permission, says the ICO.

Tim made the connection late, and he still reported it to the Yellow Card scheme. Ask for your dates, then report it.

Sources

1. NHS, NHS App: “To use the NHS App, you must be aged 13 or over and registered with a GP surgery in England.” Accessed 28 October 2026.
2. NHS England Digital, Your online GP health record, 4 December 2023, 110 seconds. Transcript (in the video description): “If you are 16 and over, you can see new information added to your GP health record”; it “does not include records from hospital and specialist services … but you can see letters they send to your general practice”; “You can also tell them if you notice anything wrong or missing from your record; for example, some medication you take”.
3. NHS App help, Request or view prescriptions: a medicine may not be listed if it’s “a one-off course of medicine” or has “not been prescribed for a long time”. Accessed 28 October 2026.
4. NHS App help, Viewing documents (letters from your hospital sent to your GP surgery), Viewing allergies and adverse reactions and Requesting a letter or information from your GP. Accessed 28 October 2026.
5. NHS App help, Viewing test results: tests from before October 2023 “may not appear automatically”; “It is not possible to download your test results from the NHS App. Contact your GP surgery if you need a copy of your test results or health record.” Accessed 28 October 2026. On that day the NHS website had no general page on getting a copy of your health record: its earlier address answered “not found”.
6. Digital Health and Care Wales, NHS Wales App, App Store listing: it “lets you securely access health records … (subject to your GP practice making these services available via the App)”. Accessed 28 October 2026.
7. Information Commissioner’s Office, Getting copies of your information (SAR), latest update 17 April 2024. As of 28 October 2026 the ICO still notes the guidance “is under review and may be subject to change” after the Data (Use and Access) Act; the wording below was unchanged that day. “Anyone can make a SAR. You don’t need a solicitor or a lawyer.” “Organisations usually have one month to respond.” The page covers what to include and ways to send it. You can ask for someone else “if you can prove you have the person’s permission”. Its Make a subject access request service “will create an email to the organisation you specify”. Accessed 28 October 2026.
8. Information Commissioner’s Office, What to expect after making a subject access request, latest update 23 May 2024, under the same review notice. ID may be asked for “sensitive information, such as health or finance information”. The month starts “once they have what they need from you”. Complex requests can take up to an extra two months, if they tell you within one month. “Normally, organisations can’t charge for responding to your SAR.” A reasonable fee is allowed for a request that is “manifestly unfounded or excessive”, or for further copies. See also What to do if you don’t get a response. Accessed 28 October 2026.
9. NHS Business Services Authority, How can I request a copy of a prescription?: “you can submit a subject access request (SAR) using our web portal. You’ll receive a response within 1 month.” What we do: “processing over one billion prescription items each year”. Accessed 28 October 2026.
10. NHS, Isotretinoin: a medicine for severe acne, page last reviewed 26 June 2026: “It’s usually prescribed by a healthcare professional who specialises in treating skin conditions.”
11. NHS, Hair loss, page last reviewed 24 January 2024: finasteride and minoxidil “are not all available on the NHS, so can be expensive if you have to pay”.
12. General Pharmaceutical Council, Guidance for registered pharmacies providing pharmacy services at a distance, including on the internet, February 2025. For medicines that need extra safeguards online, the prescriber contacts the person’s GP when the person has given “their consent to contact them about the prescription”. Where “there is no consent to share information, the prescriber should then decide whether it is safe to prescribe”. For every online consultation the guidance also covers the case where the prescriber has “not been given consent to share information with the usual prescriber or GP”.
13. The Human Medicines Regulations 2012, Schedule 25, Part 1, medicines on prescription. The label shows “The name and address of the person who sells or supplies the product”. It also shows “The date on which the product is sold or supplied.” Accessed 28 October 2026.
14. MHRA, Finasteride: reminder of the risk of psychiatric side effects and of sexual side effects (which may persist after discontinuation of treatment), Drug Safety Update, 29 April 2024. Reporters are asked for “onset timing, treatment dates and particularly if a side effect continued or started after treatment was stopped.” The MHRA asks the same in its isotretinoin update of 31 October 2023, which adds that reports can be made of reactions “experienced at any time”.
15. Healy D, Bahrick A, Bak M and colleagues. Diagnostic criteria for enduring sexual dysfunction after treatment with antidepressants, finasteride and isotretinoin. Int J Risk Saf Med 2022;33(1):65-76. Proposed criteria agreed by expert consensus. Abstract: “Ancillary non-sexual symptoms vary depending on the specific condition but can include emotional blunting and cognitive impairment.” Section 3 lists “emotional numbing” and “cognitive impairment”.
16. Moral Medicine, He Took Finasteride for 17 Years… Then His Doctor Refused to Help, interview with Tim, 23 March 2026 (the title is the channel’s). Our page plays an extract, 3:07 to 5:21; the views are his own. He took finasteride 5 mg for a prostate problem and connected it with his symptoms after nearly 17 years; he reported to the Yellow Card scheme (6:34). His story on our site: Tim’s story: nearly 17 years on finasteride.
17. MHRA, Yellow Card - How to report, 12 November 2024, 93 seconds.
18. MedDRA terms as listed in our reporting data: Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (10086208) and Post 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor syndrome (10082430). There is no term yet for lasting effects after isotretinoin.

Sources checked on 28 October 2026. AI-assisted writing and review, not clinical review.