1 in 100
Did you know - 1 in 100 people will have reduced levels of clotting factors and be at risk of bleeding?
1 in 10,000
Despite this, only 1 in 10,000 people in Ireland are currently diagnosed with a bleeding disorder.
1 In 5 Women
When women with heavy periods are checked for a bleeding disorder, up to 1 in 5 will be diagnosed.
Our aim is to help you identify if you could be one of the women who live with an undiagnosed bleeding disorder
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Why is it important to know?
If you have a bleeding disorder, your body might need extra help to control bleeding. There are good medications and treatments available that can help. It is really important to know in case you ever need surgery or become pregnant. Your doctors can then make better treatment plans with you to reduce your bleeding risk.
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Why do some people bleed a lot?
Your blood naturally contains clotting factors and platelets, two important parts that work together to stop bleeding. In people with bleeding disorders, these platelets or clotting factors levels may be lower, missing or not working properly. As a result, bleeding can continue longer than expected.
Find out more on bleeding symptoms here
Find Out MoreSome Common Questions
Many bleeding disorders run in families so if you have bleeding symptoms, it is not surprising that others in your family may also have a similar pattern. In fact, many women may be slower to get a diagnosis of a bleeding disorder because heavy bleeding is treated as normal in their family. All the more reason to know your flow and understand when bleeding is heavy. If you are concerned, check out our next steps section.
Your doctor can help assess your bleeding symptoms. Heavy periods on their own are not enough to diagnose a bleeding tendency but if you have other bleeding as shown above it is important that these are considered together rather than each on their own. Why not check out our Bleeding Symptoms page and try the online bleeding score to see if you might require further testing.
One of the best known bleeding disorders is haemophilia. Due to the inheritance pattern of haemophilia, it mainly affects men with 1/10,000 diagnosed. However, many other bleeding disorders affect women and are much more common. Research has shown that even with lifelong bleeding, many women are only diagnosed later in life. The main challenge is that but many women fail to recognise bleeding, particularly their periods as being heavier than normal and often don’t seek help or investigations.
Haemophilia is an example of a bleeding disorder but many others exist. Haemophilia mainly affects men but women can be carriers and may experience bleeding. If people in your family have haemophilia, specialised testing can find out if you are affected. This is best undertaken in a Haemophilia Treatment Centre, find your local centre in the link below.
It is great if your periods are light and you do not have any bleeding symptoms. However, it is important to be aware your friends may not have the same experience. We hope to educate and open the conversations about periods so women can talk more freely about their experience. This information may not benefit you but it could help someone you know - don’t be afraid to talk about periods or bleeding, you never know when it could help someone else.
