Hemophilia refers to a rare blood disorder wherein the blood will not clot in a normal way since it does not have enough blood-clotting proteins. When you have been diagnosed with hemophilia, you are likely to bleed for much longer following any injury or trauma than a person who does not have this condition and whose blood clots normally.
If you know the early symptoms and causes of hemophilia, it may be possible to take care of the condition before it affects you severely. Small bruises and cuts are usually not a problem, but when you have an acute deficiency of blood-clotting proteins, such cuts on the knees, elbows, or ankles may continue to bleed. Internal bleeding may also damage your tissues and organs, threatening your life.
Hemophilia is essentially a genetic disorder, and the treatment will involve the replacement of this blood clotting factor that is not enough. Knowing the early symptoms and causes of hemophilia ensures that you take care of the condition faster and get appropriate treatment.
Early signs and symptoms are as follows:
- Spontaneous bleeding
- Unexplained bleeding due to cuts and injuries, or even after dental treatments and surgeries
- Unusual bleeding when vaccines are administered
- Large and deep bruises
- Swollen joints, pain, and cramps
- Blood in stool or urine
- Unexplained nosebleeds
- Bleeding into one’s brain- even a small bump can cause this if the person has acute hemophilia. The common signs and symptoms of this condition are repeated vomiting, painful and prolonged headaches, lethargy and sleepiness, double vision, clumsiness and sudden weakness, seizures, convulsions, etc.
- Unexplained irritability in infants
You should go to a doctor immediately when your child experiences the signs of brain bleeding or any injury that does not stop bleeding.
What causes hemophilia?
There is something called coagulation cascade that is responsible for bleeding to stop normally in humans. The platelets will coagulate or come together at the place where the injury or wound is, and they create a clot. So, the body’s clotting factors work to create a plug on the wound in the form of the clot. But, when such blood clotting factors are absent, then bleeding can go on.
Hemophilia is a rare genetic blood disorder; this means it is passed down from one generation to another. It is because of a defective gene that decides how our bodies will make factors. The genes are in the X chromosome, and this is why hemophilia is an X-related recessive disease.
Each of us gets two chromosomes from our parents; females have two X, while males have an X and Y chromosome. The males will get their X chromosome from the mother, while females will get their X chromosome from both. Since the genetic defect is on the X chromosome, fathers cannot pass this onto their sons. But if the male gets the altered gene from the mother, there are high chances for the kid to develop this condition. Therefore, females with one altered gene have a 50% possibility of passing it onto their kids. She is a carrier and may pass the gene even if she does not have the condition herself; that happens as she gets enough clotting factors from the other normal X chromosome. Males with X chromosome containing the altered gene may pass this onto their daughters. They then become carriers of the gene.