Bleeding disorders are generally inherited, meaning they are passed from parent to child in their genes, so you would have the condition from birth. There are some bleeding disorders that you can develop later in life because of another illness or condition, but these are quite rare. These are known as acquired bleeding disorders.
There are five possible situations that can arise with parents passing on a clotting factor gene or platelet fault:
- one parent is a carrier and the other has ‘normal’ genes
- both parents are carriers
- one parent has the condition and the other has ‘normal’ genes
- one parent has the condition and the other is a carrier both parents have the condition