Tuesday, June 19

Causes

It should be noted that hemophilia is almost always caused by a genetic defect. The reason that males have a tendency to acquire the disease is due to the fact that it is passed on VIA the X chromosome. Females have 2 X chromosomes. If there is a defect in one, provided the other chromosome is not defective it will cause no problems in the offspring. Unfortunately, males (usually) only have 1 X chromosome, therefore if it is defective they suffer from this disease. Hemophilia can occur in women, but the male must have hemophilia and the female must and least be a carrier. If this occurs, the chance of having a female born with hemophilia is 25%, and the chance of having a male with the defect is 25%. A healthy man who marries a woman that carries the hemophilia gene has a 50% chance that his son with this woman will have hemophilia, and a 50% chance that his daughter will be a carrier of this gene. A hemophiliac who marries a healthy woman will have healthy sons, but his daughters will all carry the hemophilia gene. On a very rare occasion a girl could be born with hemophilia, but for that, the father needs to have hemophilia and the mother carry the defective gene. It is possible to develop hemophilia. Very rarely a mutation in the gene responsible for hemophilia may occur due to extremely poor nutrition (starvation), auto immune diseases, certain cancers, etc.

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