Hello,
It's been a while since I've been on the board. I am an almost 44 year old female that has had HBV since birth. I'm e-antigen negative. I've had monitoring for the past almost 20 + years. My labs have been checked every 3-6 months, with ultrasound and MRI alternating every 6 months.
My ALT's have consistently always been in the 20's, with the occasional very low 30's. In the past 6 months my ALT has gone up to the middle 30's, and last week had labs again and my ALT now is 43. I know the numbers are not horrible, but they are not normal for me either. I met with my liver specialist today and she thinks it's time to start treatment, since there is no other reason we can attribute the ALT increasing to.
What I don't understand is why the ALT seems to be slowly increasing but my viral load is not (viral load fluctuates between 300-800 iu). Last week my viral load was in the low 300's, so on lower end of normal for me, even though ALT went up.
My question is, can the ALT increase be attributed to the virus, even though the DNA is staying within my normal range for me? She is wanting me to start with the new Vimledy but it already looks like my insurance is going to give me issues and require me to start on Viread. The insurance said the only way they will pay for Vimledy is if I fail Viread. I hate to start treatment if the ALT is not attributed to the virus, but at this point she said going on treatment will mean that it's one less thing that we can possibly attribute to the rise in ALT. If ALT stays as is on treatment I don't know what they would even do, since I am thin, eat super healthy, work out regularly, do not drink or smoke, etc.
Thank you for any and all help!