Worried about blood tests

[Jeninthesouth]

Hi, I have had mildly elevated liver enzymes since 2019. I am female, 45, BMI 24.6 and I suffer from fibroids that cause me to have extremely heavy periods and I am often anaemic. I don’t drink or do drugs. High LFTs were first picked up during routine blood tests and my doctor said not to worry about them. I had to repeat the blood test every 6 months and the LFTs kept consistently showing high so I had an ultrasound in 2021 on the liver and abdomen which showed nothing of concern. I have never had any symptoms, pain or discomfort. GP kept monitoring and in August 2022 blood tests show high ALT, AST and GTT so my doctor did a full liver screen and all sorts of blood tests including Coeliac disease, Hepatitis B and C, all came back negative so she referred me to a Gastroenterologist. I was given an appointment in December 2022 but they kept postponing it. GP repeated all tests in Jan 2023, Hep B and C antibodies came back satisfactory, ALT, GTT had improved but GTT was still a bit high and my haemoglobin level was slightly low. Repeated blood count in April and haemoglobins were very low and I was diagnosed with anaemia again but that was attributed to my heavy periods which got a lot worse since last year. Last week I finally had my gastro appointment, 9 months post referral. The consultant asked all sorts of question and confirmed I had mild mixed pattern liver injury but the cause is unknown. He did a liver scan which showed no visible scarring and said it was reassuring but gave me a list of blood tests to do and there’s over 30 tests to do including Hep B,C and HIV. I didn’t look at the list until I got home and when I saw HIV I completely freaked out. I was riddled with anxiety when I had to do the Hepatitis tests last year and beginning of this year and thought the negative results meant I was clear. My circumstances haven’t changed so not sure why they want me to go through this again. Are they suspecting something sinister? Anyone had to go through something similar and what was your diagnosis?

[bleeny]

Try not to worry too much. They do a multitude of tests to discount certain things and start putting together a picture of what could be wrong. It sometimes takes a long time to get a diagnosis. I hope you get answers soon.

[BritishLiverTrust8 Moderator British Liver Trust]

Dear Jeninthesouth

If you would find it useful to talk things over, our nurse-led helpline is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 3pm on 0800 652 7330 (excluding bank holidays)

Best wishes

British Liver Trust