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If there was a woman who is also a hemophiliac/bleeder, what happens when she gets her period? Does her condition affect said period in any way, and if so, how? Would it be troublesome (more than usual) for her, and would she have to face any serious issues?

Kate Gregory
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Jonas Schwarz
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1 Answers1

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"Luckily" haemophilia only occurs in men*; women may be carrier of the disease but their bleeding tendency is in general less severe.

However, haemophilia carriers and women with other bleeding disorders (such as von Willebrand disease or platelet problems, e.g. Glanzmann) may experience very heavy menstrual blood loss. In general the menstruation won't take more days, but the blood loss can be much more severe. This could lead to anaemia and potentially death.

To minimise this blood loss, one could suppress the period (e.g. oral contraceptives or an intra-uterine device). Other options would be administration of the part that's missing or malfunctioning (clotting factor or platelets) or blood transfusion to treat anaemia.

* based on the comments below I want to add that it is possible that a woman is a true haemophiliac, but that this is very rare. Haemophilia is an X-linked disorder; because men inherit XY one affected X chromosome will cause the disease. Women have XX, which means that they can "compensate" the effect of one affected X chromosome by the activity of the other X chromosome. She is then a carrier of the disease: there is a 50-50 chance of her son (to whom she gives one X) is a haemophiliac. A woman could inherit two affected X chromosomes if her father is a haemophiliac and her mother is a carrier (and inherits the affected X chromosome). This makes true haemophilia much more rare in women than in men.

Jasper
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    Haemophilia is not limited to men. Although the cases are very rare, haemohilia in females can occur. Daughters of a haemophilic man and a carrier woman are at 50% risk. – Arsak Nov 15 '17 at 08:28
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    @Marzipanherz Relevant passage: Very rarely, a girl might be born with a very low clotting factor and have a greater risk for bleeding, similar to to boys who have haemophilia and very low levels of clotting factor. There are several hereditary and genetic causes of this much rarer form of haemophilia in females.. Just interested: Why the 50% risk? – Narusan Nov 15 '17 at 14:32
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    @Narusan-sedated The daughter would get the affected X-chromosome from her father and has a 50/50-chance to either get the affected or the healthy X-chromosome from her carrier mother. However, I do not know, whether haemophilia alters the fetuses survival chance, so the rate of alive-born girls might be different than 50/50. – Arsak Nov 15 '17 at 14:45
  • @Marzipanherz you're right. I generalised a bit to make it less complicated, but I think the main part of the answer is still valid. I don't know why people would downvote over such a detail. – Jasper Nov 15 '17 at 16:45
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    @Jasper I did not down vote, so I can not give you a reason. I just thought that your simplification was not really necessary here. Maybe edit the answer to state that those cases are very rare and thus there is little literature and then go on with your description of menstruation in other bleeding disorders. I really liked that part :) Btw: Here on Health.SE valid sources/references are expected. Missing links might have caused the downvotes as well. – Arsak Nov 15 '17 at 16:54
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    I did downvote. It’s just that I a) like things to be correct or at least have a notice that this is simplified and b) we as a site require sources for claims. If you have edited your question, feel free to ping me and I will reverse my vote into a +1 – Narusan Nov 15 '17 at 19:57
  • I appreciate your contribution of the answer, and desire to simplify, but how you did it undershoots standards for accuracy. I did not downvote since others already had and I didn't want to bury the otherwise good answer too deep in negatives! But I do 100% agree with Narusan. Oversimplification is not necessary here, it's better if it's accurate. – DoctorWhom Nov 16 '17 at 07:44
  • If I didn't know, I would read your answer and think females are either carriers or don't get it. You should at least address that it is an X linked disorder and the existence of homozygous females, even if you don't go into the manifestation of the disease. I think those details are exactly what the OP is wanting to know, however. – DoctorWhom Nov 16 '17 at 07:47
  • Thank you for the edit. I‘ve now reversed my downvote and upvoted your question. – Narusan Nov 16 '17 at 13:55