Question: What are the symptoms of cirrhosis?
Answer: You may have no symptoms in the earliest stage of cirrhosis. Symptoms of cirrhosis may not appear until the liver is badly damaged.

Early symptoms of cirrhosis may include

feeling tired or weak
itching of the skin
poor appetite
losing weight without trying
nauseaandvomiting
mild pain or discomfort over the liver in the upper right side of theabdomen, or belly
muscle loss and weakness
muscle cramps
sexual problems

As liver function gets worse, people with cirrhosis may have other symptoms, including

bruising and bleeding easily
confusion, difficulty thinking, memory loss, personality changes, or sleep disorders
internal bleeding due to the bursting of enlargedveins—called varices—in theesophagus,stomach, orintestines
swelling in the lower legs, ankles, or feet, callededema
swelling of the abdomen from a buildup of fluid, calledascites
severe itchy skin
darkening of the color of theurine
yellowish tint to the whites of the eyes and skin, calledjaundice
Question: What causes cirrhosis?
Answer: Cirrhosis has different causes. Some people with cirrhosis have more than one cause of liver damage. For some people, the cause of cirrhosis is not known.

Most common causes

The most common causes of cirrhosis are

alcohol-associated liver disease, which is damage to the liver and its function fromdrinking too much alcohol
buildup of fat in the liver, callednonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which is more common in people with overweight, obesity, or other diseases or health conditions such asmetabolic syndromeortype 2 diabetes
long-term, orchronic, infection with thehepatitis Corhepatitis Bviruses

These health conditions don’t affect every person in the same way. Some people with these health conditions may have more liver damage than others. Research suggests that certain inherited genes affect how much these conditions damage the liver.

Less common causes

Some less common causes of cirrhosis include

autoimmune hepatitis, a disease in which theimmune systemattacks the liver
diseases that damage, destroy, or blockbile ducts, such asprimary biliary cholangitisandprimary sclerosing cholangitis
inherited liver diseases—diseases passed from parents to children through genes that affect how the liver works—such asWilson disease,hemochromatosis, andalpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
long-term use ofcertain medicines and high doses of vitamin A daily
chronicheart failurewith liver congestion, a condition in which blood flow out of the liver is slowed