Fatty liver is on half the ultrasound reports in India — and whether it stops your donation depends almost entirely on its cause.
The line the screening draws
- Non-alcoholic fatty liver (diet, weight, metabolic): mild, stable, with normal liver function — most centres accept you. Declare it.
- Alcohol-related fatty liver or any significant liver disease: deferred. The alcohol history matters here, not as judgement but as medical fact — liver stress and donation do not mix.
What screening asks
- Do you drink? How much, how often? Answer honestly — the question has a medical job, and the staff have heard every answer.
- Any liver medicines or hepatitis history? Hepatitis B or C is its own permanent deferral (it travels in blood).
- Do you have your liver function report? Helpful, not mandatory.
If your fatty liver is weight-related
The same plan that helps your liver helps your donation: weight, movement, no alcohol. Fatty liver often reverses — and donors who reverse it donate for decades after.
If you drink daily
Wait at least 24–48 hours alcohol-free before donating (the standing rule for everyone), and if drinking is daily and heavy, get a liver check before you try. The refusal, if it comes, is for your safety as much as the patient’s.