5 Signs That Indicate Hemophilia
A hemophilia patient suffers from clotting proteins that do not work. Depending on the number of clotting factors in the blood, the condition can range from mild to severe. Many times, hemophilia is only diagnosed very late in life. Here are some of the early warning signs of hemophilia to look out for.
Frequent Nosebleeds
One of the common early warning signs of hemophilia for which patients are referred to hematologists is nosebleed. Nose bleeding is also called epistaxis. This is a very common form of blood loss in those with bleeding disorders. While people can experience nosebleeds for different reasons, people with hemophilia will not be able to control the bleeding and may have to rush to the emergency room quite often.
Bleeding with no Actual Cause
Another of the common early signs of hemophilia is bleeding that starts randomly without an obvious cause. Some wounds may be very small that they go unnoticed. Even in these wounds, people with hemophilia start experiencing bleeding.
Heavy Bleeding from Smaller Wounds and Cuts
When you fall and bruise yourself, the area may start bleeding and clot all by itself. However, for people with hemophilia, this can become a dangerous situation. Another of the early warning signs of hemophilia is heavy bleeding even from very small falls, cuts, and bruises. This is a sure shot sign that the person lacks enough clotting factors in the blood.
Frequent Bleeding from the Same Wound
Once a wound has been attended to and bleeding is stopped, the area starts healing naturally. For hemophilia patients, the area can start bleeding, multiple times before it heals. Frequent bleeding from the same wound is also one of the early warning signs of hemophilia you should not ignore.
Internal Bleeding
Bleeding due to an external wound can be seen and attended to quickly. Internal bleeding is quite complicated and can get dangerous. People can get into accidents and look unscathed externally. However, they may be having internal injuries and bleeding because of that. People with hemophilia will have to take care of uncontrolled internal bleeding that can be identified in the form of early warning signs like
- Blood in the urine or stools (bleeding in the kidney, bladder, stomach or intestines)
- The presence of large bruises on the body (bleeding in internal organs)
- Hot, painful, and swollen joints (bleeding in the joints)
- Seizures, convulsions, vomiting, severe headaches (bleeding in the brain)
About 20,000 individuals in the country live with hemophilia. You must check out for how frequently you bleed and how long it takes for the blood to clot to rule out this clotting disorder. All these early warning signs of hemophilia are not to be taken lightly. It’s important to conult an expert if you have any of these above signs.