Liver Infection Symptoms in Women and Men

The liver is one of the largest glandular and most vital organs in our body and weighs approximately three pounds. When it is healthy, it is a reddish-brown color. It is found on the right side beneath the diaphragm. The liver receives blood through the hepatic artery and portal vein. The liver is vital for the functioning of the human body by breaking down fats, converting glucose into glycogen, and preparing important amino acids that are the stepping stones of proteins, vitamins and minerals. With all this, the most important job of the liver is to keep harmful materials from the blood, remove and produce cholesterol and keep the blood glucose level maintained. Now understanding how important the liver is to our health, you should not ignore any problems that may indicate symptoms of liver infection.

If you are experiencing yellowing of the eyes or skin, you may be suffering one of the more common of many liver infections symptoms. Others symptoms are changes of eating habits, weight changes, and abdominal pain especially in the upper right side of the stomach, vomiting, fever or just a general feeling of sickness. While these may also be associated with other ailments, they need to be brought up when talking with your doctor since these are also affiliated with liver infections. These infections are very serious and should be treated immediately. Long-term liver infections left untreated or undiagnosed could be destructive.

Other symptoms may be changes in the bowels such as lighter-colored stool or diarrhea, lessening sex drive, and depression. Singularly these may not seem to be related, but when they are put together with other of the symptoms, there is more of a chance they might be pointing to a liver infection.

One of the most common causes of liver infections is hepatitis. Hepatitis is actually inflammation of the liver. This can be caused by a severe bacterial infection, a viral infection or by medical poisoning and alcohol. Hepatitis comes in two forms: acute and chronic. Chronic hepatitis tends to have less severe symptoms. When the hepatitis gets to the acute form, the symptoms are more pronounced. In order to diagnose hepatitis, you will need to have blood drawn and tested. You may also need to give a urine sample and have a liver ultrasound, but a biopsy will produce a definite diagnosis. There is no treatment at this time for acute viral hepatitis, but it can be avoided by receiving the hepatitis A and B vaccination.

Even though the liver infection symptoms in women are basically the same as the liver infection symptoms in men, for some reason men tend to develop liver infections twice as much as women. If a person is infected with the hepatitis B virus, most will recover if treated. Even though the virus does not affect the reproductive organs, if women are infected while they are pregnant, there is an eighty percent chance the baby will be born infected.

You should never ignore symptoms that are out of the ordinary for you, since liver infections can be threatening to your life. Discuss any and all symptoms with your doctor.

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