Hemophilia Symptoms

• If a toddler has hemophilia, bleeding often results from falls. The bleeding may repeat if the fall disrupts a clot.
  
  
• Blood in the urine (hematuria) commonly occurs with hemophilia.
  
  
  • Many people will have microscopic blood in urine, not visible with the naked eye.
    
    
  • Gross hematuria, blood you can see in urine, also is very common and may mean a bladder infection.
  
  
• You cannot see bleeding into muscle tissue and joints if you have hemophilia. But you will have pain and may see swelling.
  
  
  • Bleeding into a muscle usually follows trauma. Common sites are the thigh, calf, and forearm.
    
    
  • Bleeding into joints is the most crippling aspect of hemophilia as well as the most common site. The disease most commonly affects the knee followed by the elbow, ankle, shoulder, and wrist.
    
    
  • You may feel a warm prickly sensation before you develop pain and swelling in the joint. The degree of swelling does not match the severity of your bleeding. You may be bleeding significantly but show only a little swelling.
    
    
  • Bleeding into a joint not only makes that joint more likely to bleed in the future but also leads to progressive stiffness. This joint, which is now more prone to re-bleeding, is called the target joint.
  
  
• Bleeding into the central nervous system can be life threatening. Usually only severe hemophiliacs exhibit such bleeding, but it may occur in both moderate and mild hemophilia. Bleeding may occur in or around the brain (intracranial) or into the spinal cord (intraspinal), depending on the situation.
  
  
  • Injury to your head or spinal column normally causes this bleeding. Your injury may seem minor.
    
    
  • Adults are more prone to having intracranial bleeding without injury (spontaneous bleeding), accounting for nearly 50% of the cases.
    
    
  • Headache, nausea, vomiting, and seizure often accompany bleeding into the brain.
    
    
  • Backache or even paralysis can accompany bleeding into the spinal column.