The Bleeding Times- Spring 2017

JUNE 2016 NYC Hemophilia Walk
AUG Teen Rock Climbing Trip
Back to School Event
NOV 2016 Gala
Education Day
VWD River Cruise
OCT Step It Up: Latino
JAN Salidita de las Mamás
Health Program
A few of our awesome events in 2016
Patrick Lynch:
This episode’s expert is Dr. Arash Mahajerin, who is a
pediatric hematologist at the Children’s Hospital of Orange
County California and an assistant clinical professor at the
University of California, Irvine. This question comes from
a blood sister living in Australia, actually, and her question
is how as a clinician do you assist young patients and their
families and help them prepare for the onset of a woman’s
menstrual cycle? She says, “I’ve noticed a lot of uncertainty
from mums, especially in groups lately around how to
prepare their daughters.” I don’t know how many female
bleeders you treat, but curious to hear your answer to
that question.
Arash Mahajerin:
We certainly have plenty of women who are carriers, who
do have lower factor aid levels, and of course I think this
could have applicability to other bleeding disorders. For
example, Von Willebrand’s Disease would be a very good
example for where this would be very common. I think the
first thing that’s very helpful and what we counsel people
is that as a general rule, and of course there are always
exceptions, how severe is it initially tends to be somewhat
familial that often times we can see patterns emerge in
different families. Now that being said, someone who may
have a bleeding disorder might skew the pattern a bit and
might have bleeding a little bit early, and then on the flip
side we sometimes see people who may have anatomic
issues or other types of problems that make as onset
of bleeding much later. We can also see that in different
hormonal issues as well or endocrine issues.
Emphasizing to young women and girls that this is
something that women go through and they will become
experts in and to get used to that it might be a bit drawing
and discomforting at first, but certainly trying to demystify it
as much as possible and normalize as much as possible is
really critical.
And then of course having some action steps for whether
it will occur at home versus whether the child were at
school or maybe out-of-the-home environment and how to
approach it. And then keeping good communication with
their hematologist, OB/Gyn, or doctor so that medications
are ready and that it’s been discussed ahead of time and
it’s known, well here’s our plan. Here’s what we could
potentially order or prescribe [00:12:00] and here’s how we
can monitor and follow up to make sure that the bleeding
is slowing down, that the child is tolerating it okay and is
dealing with it well. And of course in the event the bleeding
is severe, making sure that hemoglobin is being monitored
and that it’s not causing any acute anemia.
I think those would be good steps to really prepare and
hopefully deal with it as efficiently and easily as possible.
Ask the Expert is a series of podcasts featuring listener
submitted questions answered by a hemophilia treatment
center clinician or other healthcare expert of interest. Ask
the Expert is hosted by Patrick James Lynch and is part of
the Bloodstream Podcast Network. Subscribe today!
Dr. Arash Mahajerin
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