If you’re considering starting treatment or want to know more about what treatment will be like, talk with your healthcare provider. Your decision will likely depend on a number of factors:
- Getting support while you are taking treatment—joining a support group and talking with family and friends can all play an important role while you undergo treatment
- The chances your genotype (or strain of Hep C) will respond to the treatment
- The risk of side effects
- How fast your Hep C is progressing (patients with mild disease have a better response to therapy) and the amount of liver damage you have (if you have severe liver damage treatment might not work as well)
- Whether you feel you can stick to the treatment—once you start the treatment, doing your best to stick to the treatment by taking your medications exactly as your healthcare provider tells you to will make sure the medicine is able to fight the virus
- Other health problems, like heart disease, diabetes, anemia, obesity or pre-existing mental health issues such as depression may make treatment more difficult but do not always make it impossible. (Your healthcare provider may start you on antidepressant medicine a few weeks before starting Hep C treatment.)
- How much you drink alcohol—your healthcare provider may advise you to cut back or stop as the treatment will not work as well
- How much you use street drugs—your healthcare provider may advise you to stop or cut back on the amount you use. People whose drug use is stable or who are on a methadone maintenance program may be able to take the treatment. Talk to your healthcare provider for more information on this
- If you or your partner are planning to get pregnant, then treatment can wait until after the birth. If you are sexually active, you and your partner must use at least two types of birth control while you are on treatment because the drugs can seriously harm a fetus. You need to avoid getting pregnant or getting your partner pregnant for six months after treatment is completed
- Treatment for children is usually delayed until physical and mental development is complete
Deciding “yes”
A year of treatment may be worth the rest of your life. At the very least, Hep C treatment will give your liver an opportunity to rest and heal itself while the medication fights the virus.
Your healthcare provider will talk to you about the different things to get ready before you start and set up a plan with you to make sure you’re successful with completing treatment. This plan could cover things like:
- Having a stable place to rest and food to eat. For some people this means applying for financial assistance (like welfare, disability, or community housing).
- Getting drug coverage to pay for the medication.
- Setting up a schedule for regular appointments so the healthcare worker can check how treatment is working and how it’s affecting your body and so you can report any side effects or challenges you’re having with the meds.
- Making sure you have support and people to talk to while on treatment.
If you have any questions at all, be sure to ask a doctor, nurse, clinic worker or someone else at the place where you get healthcare.
Deciding “no”
You may decide treatment isn’t for you.
If you do, you can still take steps to be well. Try your best to eat healthy food, get rest and drink plenty of water. And make sure you don’t get a different type of Hep C, or another kind of infection, like hepatitis B or HIV.
See Staying Safe and Living with Hep C for more information on how to take care of yourself and live well with hepatitis C.
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