Overview

Jaundice is when your skin and the whites of your eyes turn yellow. It can be a sign of someting serious, such as liver disease, so you need to get urgent medical help.

Ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from 111 if:

• your skin or the white part of your eyes look yellow

You may also have itchy skin, darker wee and paler poo than usual.

Symptoms of jaundice

• Your skin may look yellow if you have jaundice.
• The white part of your eyes may also look yellow.
• Yellowing of the skin may be less noticable if you have brown or black skin, but the white part of your eyes will look yellow.

Causes of jaundice

You may get jaundice if a substance called bilirubin builds up in your body.

There are lots of possible reasons for this and some of them are serious.

They include:

• alcohol-related liver disease
• gallstones
• hepatitis
• pancreatitis
• sickle cell disease

Treatments for jaundice depend on what's causing it.

Newborn jaundice

Jaunice is common in newborn babies and is usually harmless.

Find out more about newborn jaundice.