Hemophilia Essay

1255 Words3 Pages

Hemophilia is a genetic disorder in which the blood does not clot normally. It’s a rare bleeding disorder that has been happening since ancient times. Men are the ones mainly affected by it. One in five thousand men born each year have Hemophilia. Yet women can be carriers and just like men, they can suffer from symptoms too. Women can only have Hemophilia if their father does and mother is a carrier, it’s uncommon but can happen. Hemophilia affects all races and ethnic groups. It’s all based on your family tree. A man with Hemophilia will pass the gene down to his daughters, leading to them becoming carriers. A woman with the gene has a fifty percent chance of passing the gene down on to her sons. If there was no family history of Hemophilia but the woman is a carrier, a son could possibly be the first one in the family to have it. If there’s one thing for certain about hemophilia is that it does not discriminate against anyone. Hemophilia has affected royalty as well as high and low class men all throughout history. A famous carrier of Hemophilia was Queen Victoria. One of her sons, Leopold had Hemophilia and two of her daughters, Alice and Beatrice were carriers. Royalty would marry into other royal families. Therefore Hemophilia continued to be passed down the royal tree giving Hemophilia the nickname as the ‘Royal Disease’. One of the following generations being affected was Alexei, the son of Alexandra and Nicholas the Czar of Russia. Alexei inherited the disease from his mother who was a carrier. Queen Victoria was the maternal grandmother of Alexandra. The ‘Royal Disease’ was was continuing to greatly affect the royals. After doctors were not able to do anything to help Alexei, his mother turned to Rasputin for help. Raspu... ... middle of paper ... ...r sons that eventually made it’s way down to the Russian Czar’s family. Hemophilia does not target anyone nor race in particular. It’s only because men have only one X chromosome there isn’t another one like women have to offset it. Women can experience problems from being carriers, but not nearly as extreme as men with it do. Having severe Hemophilia has a huge impact on a man’s life. He cannot think or act rash. If he chooses to, he is risking his life. From a bloody nose to a pulled out tooth, it will take longer for the bleeding to reduce and stop. Due to the fact that Hemophilia is only on the X chromosome the chance a boy will get it all depends on his mother. If she doesn’t have it he is safe, but if she does he has a fifty percent chance of getting it. Awareness about Hemophilia is continuing to be spread just like treatment continues to advance.

More about Hemophilia Essay

Open Document