How much would a doctor charge me for a liver function test?!
Question: I have been drinking beer pretty heavily(3 cases a week) since I was 20. now I am 26 and am trying to slow down. What are the chances that ive done irreversible damage to my liver?
Answers: I have been drinking beer pretty heavily(3 cases a week) since I was 20. now I am 26 and am trying to slow down. What are the chances that ive done irreversible damage to my liver?
The fees vary. When you see a doctor you generally pay a certain fee, and then the tests, like your liver function tests, are extra, and could cost a couple hundred dollars. If you were a heavy drinker, it is best to slow down now, after only 6 years of drinking. The damage to the liver varies, where some occur after only a short time of alcohol abuse, while others could take a while, like several years. Most people who develop cirrhosis of the liver (due to excessive alcohol intake) manifest the symptoms when they are in their 40s and 50s, but by then the changes in the liver would have become irreversible. So the sooner you quit, the better.
When you get your liver function tests back, it may be normal or abnormal. Normal doesn't mean it is completely ok, it only means that there are enough liver cells to carry out the job that the liver does, which is to clean out toxins from your blood stream.
$75.00 minimum for the office visit
$10.00 for the blood draw
then the specimen is sent to a lab, usually, and that runs anywhere from 12.00 to 30.00 dollars depending on the lab.
six years of heavy alcohol consumption probably put a burden on the liver it could have done without, but if you stop drinking now, it may regenerate. Keep drinking and the damage will become permanent by thirty years of age.