Women’s Health Week has begun! Throughout the week we’re sharing information, personal stories and tips to support women and girls with bleeding disorders.
This year’s theme is ‘Say yes to you’. Together with Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, we’re encouraging women and girls to speak up, check in, and prioritise their health and wellbeing.
Every check matters
Understanding what’s normal for your body starts with regular health checks. Prioritise your health by staying up to date.
Check out the new tool – released today by Jean Hailes for Women’s Health – and stay on top of your health checks.
“It’s time to put yourself first because when women prioritise their health, everyone benefits.”
Dr Sarah White, CEO of Jean Hailes for Women’s Health
Take the Lead
Are you a woman with a bleeding disorder? It can be helpful to think about what to tell your other doctors, or how to approach the conversation. They may have never treated someone with a bleeding disorder before, or be familiar with the current treatment.
Look through the images for suggestions on what to say to your other doctors, and for more information check out our ‘Self-advocacy for women’ page.
Pain to Power
Ovarian cysts the size of oranges. Extremely heavy periods that lasted weeks. Years of fatigue and pain. Joint bleeds. Bladder bleeds.
Shauna’s frank discussion of growing up with von Willebrand disease is an eye-opening insight into the life of a woman with a bleeding disorder, and the pain and isolation she experienced as a result.
Despite this, Shauna has gone on to have a successful career and is at a point where she feels in control of her own health.
“Our society is not generally accepting of open conversations about periods, something that is amplified during teenage years. My bleeding disorder symptoms during this period of my life made me feel extremely isolated. My peers could never understand the level of medical trauma I was experiencing.”
– Shauna, Type 3 VWD
Be Kind to Your Mind
Do you find yourself irritable, a bit short with people, easily upset, regularly frustrated, sometimes tearful, tired, unable to enjoy life like you used to?
You may be needing to do some deliberate self-care.
Kathryn Body shares how you can maintain your happiness, physical health, and mental health through a few simple lifestyle changes.
Because taking care of yourself doesn’t mean “me first” – it means “me, too.”
Telling Daughters – Zev’s Story
Zev has severe haemophilia, and realised early on that his daughter would carry his altered gene.
He shares his story of raising three children, two boys and one girl, and how his open, family conversations about haemophilia paved the way for his daughter to understand how she might be affected.
“Normalising haemophilia by making it part of general family conversation helps. Often there’s no obvious signs of haemophilia with current treatments so men with haemophilia might put it on the back burner. But these conversations need to be had. You shouldn’t protect your kids from things that might be necessary.”
– Zev, a father with haemophilia
