Not so much a stigma as it is a lack of understanding. People usually don't understand how I'm so worn down all the time, how exhausting it can be just to make it through some days when chronic fatigue is a constant companion.

@A MyHemophiliaTeam Member my last counselor kept asking asking that's quest over and over. It was one of the reasons why I stopped going. Because I have explained with each session that it was a chromosome mutation not the results of imbreeding. I did not sleep with my relatives at all...that's just well yeah.

In elementary school, I was berated by 2 of my closest friends for sitting out of gym class when I had my period. I remember bawling my eyes out as they taunted me as I walked home from school, circling me in their rollerblades. I really could not have participated without it ending in a horrible, embarrassing way... I wasn't diagnosed with Von Willebrands until high school so I didn't know at the time any more than them that there was a biological reason why my period was abnormally heavy. I was still close with them years later when I was diagnosed. I never got an apology... I don't know if either of them even remember. It is a memory that has burned itself into my consciousness. I'm now 35, and I still flash back from time to time.

When I was in elementary school, I used to bring in my materials for infusion and would track and show any and all students, teachers, and even some parents. It seemed that their understanding was of great benefit. In 1987, I moved to a new junior high school, and sure to the recent incidents with Ryan White, I discounted the outside...perhaps this was not the best course, but the associated stigma concerned me enough. While true, I was certainly not picked first in recess...There were as always misunderstandings about if i was "fragile". In retrospect, continuing to inform people might have been a better course, but i choose to err on the side of caution and did the best i could to avoid it. The only person who really knew was my very close friend, and he was truly the best person i have ever know. I believe there will always be a bit of a stigma associated with hemophilia. You do the best you can...be better today than you were yesterday, and pretty soon you deserve to survive.

I always had nosebleeds the beginning of 7 th.grade it was the 2 nd day of school I had a nosebleeds scared the teacher so bad after I left to go to the hospital they called a ambulance for him they said all the blood cause him to have a heart attack , couple of yrs passed I got the same teacher again , everything was different this time because I wasn't allowed to be in his class room. He said he wasn't having another heart attack on my count. It wasn't til 2012 when I was diagnosed with Graves Pool Disease !