Anout a couple of years ago, I was dating this guy. We were actually in a serious relationship and we thought we were in love. I had unprotected sex with him many of times because of this. Well, one day he told me he had sex with this woman when he was younger(he is now 29). The woman was much older than him and she either had liver cancer or cirossis(spelling?) of the liver. he never explained to me how she got sick. I automatically thought it was from alcoholism. Anyways, I didn't really think anything of it. Until, we broke up which was last year. I found out he cheated on me. He never loved me. I got genital warts from him as well. He even gave me mono once which made my liver enzymes elevate. Well, anyways now I'm scared that he gave me hepatitis C from this woman of his past. I sometimes get dull pains on my right and left side of my body below the rib cage. I had routine check ups before but besides that one case of mono, I always had normal liver enzymes. Do you think I could prolly have hepatitis c and not know it? I'm scared. I'm 25 years old, I don't do drugs and I never shared blood with anyone. I also had every STD test except hepatitis. Everything came back clear except my horrible condtion of genital warts. I don't know...I don't have health insurance. I just turned 25 and they took it away from me. I can never forgive myself for dating this guy. I am glad that genital warts is not anything fatal but its embarrassing and depressing. I don't know what I would do if I found out I had hepatitis as well.

Hello,

From what I understand, having unprotected sex with a person who is infected with hepatitis C is an almost non-existent cause of infection. There is about 10% of all that have been infected where the cause cannot be determined. I know that I was intimate with my wife during the time that I had hep C and thankfully once I found out I had it, she still tested negative for antibodies.

It is however listed in a booklet that I have to avoid multiple sex partners, so some do believe that it can happen. The CDC does list sexual activity as a potential risk factor but from what I can tell, there is still a lot of confusion in this area.

My advice to anyone who has never been tested for hep C is to get tested even if you are not in a high risk group. Elevated liver enzymes is how I was originally diagnosed but the same tests showed no elevated levels the year before so I believe that a person can still have hep C without having elevated ALT/AST levels because the virus must be active at the time of the test in order for this test to pick up the enzymes that are released when the liver is being actively stressed or damaged.

I think getting yourself tested would ease your mind quite a bit, but of course the choice is yours alone to make!

Hope this helps a little!!

Chuck

cclay gives good and correct information, and you can find this info well documented. In my own case I may have been infected since the late 1960's at which time I had a few units of blood. What I can say is that I had been with my husband for 20 years when I was diagnosed, and as soon as I found out I had hep C, he was tested and he is negative. Knowing what you now know about relationships (and those invisible little buggers that may be involved) should help you make more enlightened choices in the future. Best Wishes and be well.

Thanks for the advice, unforunately I don't have health insurance at this time so I will have to wait. Do you think my chances are minimal? Is rib pain a symptom of hepatitis? I have some minor pain on my left and right side. But it comes and goes and is not very intense..just dull. I'm sorry, I feel like a hypocondirac. I have been acting like this ever since I was diagnosed with genital warts...

Hello again,

Depending on the state that you live in, there are usually some resources for low cost or free testing for hep C. Since we cannot mention other web sites here, I cannot direct you to some of these resources. I would try typing something like "hepatitis C testing" into your search engine and see what comes up.

For me the lab work cost $350.00. I realize that this is a lot of money. In the meantime, you might check into getting a liver panel test. These tests are usually a lot cheaper and can tell you if your liver is functioning O.K. at least. In fact, my diagnosis came from a test that tests for the presence of ALT/AST liver enzymes. When these are elevated it means that the liver is being actively damaged or stressed for some reason.

I beleive that the liver is located more on the left side of the body. It is possible to feel imflamation of the liver but I don't think it would be on both sides of the body.

Also, as for sex and hep C, it is still believed to be a very low if not non-existent form of transmission.

Hope this helps a little,

Chuck

It's .01 of a %.