Written for the UK
Excessive sweating,
explained properly
Almost every guide to hyperhidrosis online is American: dollar prices, insurance, and products you cannot get here. This one is not. What you can buy without a prescription, what the NHS actually funds, and which products are worth the money.
- UK pricing and NHS routes, not US insurance
- Sources cited to NHS, NICE and the BAD
- Affiliate-funded and disclosed
Educational only. This page is not medical advice and has not been reviewed by a clinician. See a GP or pharmacist about your own sweating, and read the disclaimer.
Three things American advice gets wrong for UK readers
No prescription
The strongest antiperspirants, at 20% aluminium chloride, are sold over the counter in UK pharmacies. American sites will tell you that you need a prescription. You do not.
Driclor and Anhydrol ForteNo NICE guideline
NICE has never published a hyperhidrosis guideline. Beyond first-line antiperspirant, what you can get is decided locally by your ICB, which is why care varies so much by area.
What UK guidance actually saysNot licensed here
Qbrexza and Sofdra are the treatments US coverage talks about most. Neither is licensed in the UK, so no GP can prescribe them however much you have read about them.
Can you get Sofdra in the UK?Work out where you stand
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How bad is it, really?
Score yourself on the scale clinicians use, then print a summary to take to your GP.
Take the 60-second checkFind one strong enough
Filter by strength, body area and what you can actually buy in the UK.
Open the finderWhat will it cost?
Private UK prices for iontophoresis, Botox, miraDry and surgery, and what the NHS funds.
Compare costsStart with what actually works
NICE's clinical knowledge summary starts primary localised hyperhidrosis with a 20% aluminium chloride antiperspirant, sold under a pharmacist's supervision. That is the usual first step in the UK, not a promise it will be enough on its own. How the NHS pathway works.
Driclor is the classic UK pharmacy aluminium chloride antiperspirant: 20% aluminium chloride hexahydrate in a roll-on applicator, applied at night to dry skin and washed off in the morning. Now marketed by Haleon, it remains the benchmark strong antiperspirant that most others are compared against.
Check the formula, pack size, seller and delivery country. Search results may include alternatives.
Price and availability vary by marketplace
Perspirex is the Danish-made (Riemann) clinical antiperspirant range built around aluminium chloride with a skin-care system containing calcium lactate. The Comfort/Original/Strong ladder plus hand and foot lotions make it the most flexible of the UK clinical antiperspirant brands.
Check the formula, pack size, seller and delivery country. Search results may include alternatives.
Price and availability vary by marketplace
Odaban is a 20% aluminium chloride antiperspirant in a silicone-based pump spray, developed by UK pharmacist Jeff Bracey around 1970. The spray format and skin-buffering base make it the pick for feet and larger body areas, and a little goes a long way.
Check the formula, pack size, seller and delivery country. Search results may include alternatives.
Price and availability vary by marketplace
Original Fit crew neck with a cotton body and Hydro-Shield underarm panels. Thompson Tee describes the panels as a barrier against visible underarm sweat. This listing is not the bamboo-rayon Slim Fit variant.
Check the formula, pack size, seller and delivery country. Search results may include alternatives.
Sold through retailers; price varies
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If antiperspirant is not enough
The next steps, roughly in the order a UK clinician would work through them.
Iontophoresis
Tap water and a mild current, used for hands and feet when a pharmacy antiperspirant is not enough.
From ~£350 for a home device
Botulinum toxin
Hospital injections for severe underarm sweating. The effect wears off, and NHS funding varies by area.
£350–£700 privately
Tablets
Propantheline is the only one licensed here. Oxybutynin is used off-label.
NHS prescription charge
Surgery (ETS)
Irreversible, rarely funded, and compensatory sweating affects most patients.
Last resort
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