Haemophilia

Living with

Living with haemophilia

With treatment, most people with haemophilia can live a normal life. However, there are some things you'll need to be careful of.

For example, you should avoid contact sports such as rugby. You also need to be careful taking other medications, because some can interfere with your blood's ability to clot. Common examples of these include aspirin and Painkillers, ibuprofen .

It's important for people with haemophilia to maintain good oral hygiene and have regular trips to the dentist. This is to help avoid problems such as gum disease , which can cause bleeding. Most non-surgical dental treatment can be carried out in a general dental practice.

Your care team at the hospital can offer advice about surgical dental procedures, such as having a tooth removed, as well as further information and advice about living with haemophilia.

Medically Reviewed by a doctor on 4 Jan 2017

Articles for haemophilia

Introduction

Haemophilia is an inherited condition that affects the blood's ability to clot. Normally, when you cut yourself, substances in the blood known as clotting factors combine with blood cells called platelets to make the blood sticky

Symptoms

The symptoms of haemophilia vary, depending on how severe the condition is, but the main sign is prolonged bleeding. The symptoms of an intracranial haemorrhage include: severe headache, stiff neck, vomiting, a change in mental state such as confusion, etc.

Causes

Haemophilia is caused by an inherited genetic mutation that mainly affects males, due to the way it's passed from a parent to their child. A genetic mutation is a permanent alteration in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene.

Diagnosis

Haemophilia can be diagnosed before, during or after birth if there's a family history of the condition. Several options are available to parents. If there's no family history of haemophilia, it's usually only diagnosed when a child begins to walk or crawl.

Treating

If your child is diagnosed with haemophilia, their recommended treatment plan will depend on how severe their haemophilia is. There are two main approaches to treatment: preventative treatment and on-demand treatment.

Complications

Some people who take blood clotting factor medication may develop certain antibodies in their immune system, known as inhibitors.This happens if the immune system starts to treat clotting factors as foreign objects (like germs) and tries to block their effects.

Living with

With treatment, most people with haemophilia can live a normal life. However, there are some things you'll need to be careful of. You should avoid contact sports such as rugby. You also need to be careful taking other medications, because some can interfere with your blood's ability to clot.

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