What if i decide against treatment

[annidote]

What if i decide against treatment for Hep C Type 1a. I am 55 yrs old and have had Hep C for 23 years and am afraid of doing treatment for this. What are the risks?

[curiouslady1]

Once you have your liver checked and have consulted with a good doc, you will know better whether a clinical trial will suit you or not.  There are a number of less harsh drugs in development.  Check the archives for threads concerning some of these drugs.  Here is one coming up shortly NCT01435044 at clinicaltrails.gov  New sites are being added.  Keep in mind that this is not for everyone.  

[JasmineT]

I am 49 and stage 1.  I don't know if I have had hep c 12 or 30 years so no way to judge how rapidly it is progressing.  The pace can of course change over time.  I weighed in that in 15 years, treatment might be much harder on me and a liver transplant or cancer did not sound like fun.  My quality of life had already dropped over the last many years. I knew something was wrong, just didn't know what.  I was already not functioning like I should.  Maybe I can get back to healthy if I do this before it gets too bad or I am not as Abe to recoup.  I knew I needed to do this when I weighed all of the factors.  The doctor thinks 89% percent chance of cure for me at a cost of 6 months of feeling like crud.  No brainer for me.  You may want to weigh your own personal factors and maybe talk more to your hepatologist but these were some of the reasons around my decision to treat.  Slay the dragon.

[skersj]

Please don't let fear stop you. I had to learn how to swallow the pills because I hadn't taken medications in years. I have a phobia of ANY medicines and I was able to stay on treatment 72 weeks. The hardest shot is the first.

[joemc34606]

The effects of not treating this are much worse than the side of this medication. Like Aaron said hepatitis causes liver cancerand and cirrhosis. I would much rather treat foe six months than to end up with end stage liver failure. Have a biopsy done to check your liver condition and maybe you can wait until some new non interferon drugs come out. Remember some people have mild or no side effects, everyone is different. Good luck. Joe

[Aaron57]

You should have your liver condition checked first .. and then make a risk assessment ...

Some of the major risks of not treating are advanced liver disease and or liver cancer.

If you have no fibrosis , you have time to wait .. if you do have fibrosis F2 or above you may want to consider Tx ..

I'm 45 weeks into Inf/Riba Tx and going ok .. some lightweight Sx ...

No regrets at this time .

[Livinontheedge]

One more thing that just crossed my mind.  We are all scared, scared for our lives, & scared of the unknown.   And the only way to dump that 400 lb bag of worry and scared , is to just do it !   You will find out  that there will be peace once you get started :)   Hugs