Young Writers Society

Hey guys! I was just wondering some things about haemophilia - my MC in a current story is a haemophiliac teenager who runs away from home - I was just wondering what health problems and other hazards he might encounter? Thanks.

Robyn.

Hey there
My mom's cousin has Haemophilia, and we are also studying it in my bio class so I'll try to help you a bit.

First, the base... that you probably already know, it's a blood decease transmitted by genes (girls rarely have it, only when the second X chromosome is defectional and cannot hide the haemophilia gene, and are therefor only carriers of the disease. And guys, have to have inherit it from their mother because of that -the y chromosome cannot have the disease-) So if your MC is a boy, then the mother has to have a familly history with haemopilia and if it is a girl, then her dad also has to have the disease, but she is also a VERY rare case.

The blood disorder is mainly cause by a lack of clotting factors so that means they'll just keep on bleeding until they are out of blood, without ever forming a scab. If they cut themselves, they have to go to the hospital without delay for a shot of those 'clotting factors' they are missing and blood transfusion if they have lost a lot of blood (One complication you could have for your MC here is one of the types of blood that are more rare, like AB or B or even some subdivisions.. but that will get quite complicated)
Another thing they have to be careful with are when they hit themselves hard enough, they bruise but unlike most of us, the thorn blood vessel will not repare itself... which can lead to internal bleeding. This can be very dangerous.

Also, Haemophiliacs tend to have a lower immune system so they get sick very easily, and don't have the best Antibodies to fight the sickness. That's something you should keep in mind, and there's also a treatment for Heamophilia type A, to help the patients build up their immune system.

Finally, if your character is a girl, then you have to think about a bunch of things... like periods, pregnancy and such. For a guy, you still have surgery, Hepatitis or any other disease transmitted by blood and bodily fluids -The blood is now mostly tested for those but some cases can be missed... or if it's more 'back in the day', blood wasn't screened at all for such-

Alright that is all I can think of... hope it helped a little!

-Truth-

Oops, missed the 'he' in there.. Alright so being a guy, forget all that thing about periods and all

Thanks Truth! *notes all that down*