Harvoni and Pale Stools

[KY]

Anyone out there know why I may have pale-looking stools? I am on day 15 of Harvoni. I know color has something to do with bile, but not sure if others had same experience while on Harvoni.

[gnatcatcher]

I had pale stools while on Harvoni. After treatment, they've been in the healthy peanut butter/pumpkin/cinnamon/milk chocolate color range. Pale stools are common while taking Harvoni, but I don't know why that is.

[KY]

It is a shock when you are told you have HEP C. But it does explain weird symptoms you may have had over the years. I had had the virus for 43 years and found out seven years ago. I have been married 40 years, but my wife never contracted the virus. But these days a simple pill once a day with little side effects will take care of the problem. I am currently on day 15 of an 8 week treatment of Harvoni. There is hope. Also there is help to pay for the drug and insurance companies are much better at paying for it than they used to be.

[Mugwump]

I had pale stools while on Harvoni. After treatment, they've been in the healthy peanut butter/pumpkin/cinnamon/milk chocolate color range. Pale stools are common while taking Harvoni, but I don't know why that is.

Your description of doodoo just made me lose my appetite and spit my coffee on the keyboard! I had to put down my piece of pumpkin pie. 

To be specific if you suddenly have a more pronounced exchange of liver cells it will effect the colour of your stools one of the signs of advancing liver disease is a change in the colour of your stools. What might very well be happening is, some of us might suddenly exchange a great many more cells in a hurry as Harvoni exposes the infected cells. The liver then discharges them and process creates the bilirubin effect that colours the stools yellow.
My suspicion is that this only happens to those of us who are at a higher level of infected cells at the initial onset of treatment. This does not mean that our viral load needs to necessarily be extremely high at the time, it just means that there were more cells in the liver that were about to die and we were at a high point of the infection which as we know goes in waves over the years.