Symptoms of liver damage
Chronic hepatitis B is an infection lasting more than 6 months. You might notice some of the symptoms above. Many people have no symptoms of the virus.
Chronic hepatitis B can cause liver damage. Early-stage liver damage often has no symptoms.
Symptoms of later stage liver damage (cirrhosis) can include:
- Tiredness (fatigue) and weakness
- Feeling sick and appetite loss
- Weight loss or muscle wasting
- Small spider-like veins on skin above your waist (spider angiomas)
- Blotchy red patches on the palms of your hands
- Yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice)
- High temperature and shivering
- Vomiting blood
- Change in the colour of your poo to either pale or very dark and tar-like
- Very itchy skin
- Swelling of your tummy, legs or ankles
- Dark-coloured pee
- Bleeding or bruising easily
- Confusion, memory loss, personality changes, or poor judgement
- Abnormal periods (in people born female)
- Shrunken testicles, swollen scrotum, or swelling or growing breasts (in people born male)
- Loss of sex drive (libido)
How to spot jaundice on different skin tones
The main symptom of jaundice is yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes. The change in skin colour is usually easy to notice on white skin but it can be harder to see on black and brown skin.
Colour change to the whites of your eyes should be easier to spot. This can also be due to other things, such as ageing, especially for Black and Brown people. Itchiness and pale-coloured poo are also symptoms of jaundice.
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Published July 2023
Review due: July 2026