Treatment

[Upbeat]

I was told many years ago that doing treatment will either cure you or kill you if you have Cirrhosis. As a person with Cirrhois I am curious if anyone on the transplant list has not done treatment.  I have had doctors tell me that Treatment is very hard on the liver and others that say you should treat as long as your still compensated.

[marco126]

Not true my friend,everyone is different,and you half to ask what is the outcome of no treatment?You never here about the success stories,because they don't need to be in forums anymore,without treatment Hepatitis C can be far more brutal,I've had it for 30 years.

[HectorSF]

"Cure you or kill you" is rather dramatic.

"I have had doctors tell me that treatment is very hard on the liver and others that say you should treat as long as your still compensated."

Both statements are true.
If you still have compensated cirrhosis then you should be able to still treat your hepatitis in most cases. Being a cirrhotic though does present some risk for decompensation or liver failure. All cirrhotic patients should knows this and weigh the risk vs benefit. It is also advisable to be under the care of a hepatologist who has the resources to manage the more servere side effects and adverse events that may be experienced by cirrhotics doing treatment. They also tend to more closely monitoring patients for signs that the treatment could be worsening the condition of your liver.

"I am curious if anyone on the transplant list has not done treatment"
Yes. Some people on transplant lists weren't aware that they had hepatitis C or liver disease until it is too late to treat the virus.
Others tried treatment but were unable to complete it due to servere side effects or adverse events such as blood levels becoming dangerously abnormal.
Many have tried treating but failed treatment because they don't respond to interferon. Like myself.

As long as a person is chronically infected with hepatitis C their liver disease will continue to get worse over time. If the virus can be eliminated before the liver disease is irreversible, then the life-threatening advancement of liver disease can be stopped.

Cheers!
Hector

[rpooo]

Hepatitis must be treated to avoid rapid advancement of cirrhosis. Once a cirrhotic patient has reached decompensation then it is likely to progress to a terminal degree. A cirrhotic patient with a compensated liver may live for many years with proper diet and exercise so you can see why it is critical to treat your hepatitis. Hepatitis left untreated will cause your cirrhotic liver to advance to decompensation. I hope this helps. Take care.

Randy