Blood Disorders: Types, Symptoms & Treatments

What are blood disorders?

Blood disorders are conditions that keep parts of your blood from doing their jobs:

• Your red blood cells carry oxygen throughout your body.
• Your white blood cells help protect your body from infection.
• Your platelets help your blood to clot so you don’t bleed more than normal.

Blood disorders may be cancerous or noncancerous. This article focuses on noncancerous blood disorders.

You may inherit a noncancerous blood disorder or develop one because you have an underlying condition that affects your blood.

Some blood disorders may not cause symptoms or require treatment. Others are chronic (lifelong) illnesses that require treatment but typically won’t affect how long you’ll live. Other blood disorders are serious illnesses that can be life-threatening.

Healthcare providers treat blood disorders by managing symptoms and treating any underlying conditions.

How do blood disorders affect my body?

In general, noncancerous blood disorders are conditions that affect your blood cells and platelets and cause issues that may:

• Increase your risk of blood clots. Factor V Leiden, an inherited blood disorder, is an example of a blood clotting disorder.
• Make you bleed more than normal because your blood doesn’t form blood clots. Inherited hemophilia is an example of a bleeding disorder.

What are common blood clotting disorders?

A blood clotting disorder affects your platelets or your clotting factors (coagulation factors). Clotting factors are proteins in your blood. Your platelets and clotting factors make blood clots, which control bleeding. Blood clotting disorders may be called a hypercoagulable state or thrombophilia. Blood clotting disorders include:

• Prothrombin gene mutation: This inherited disorder increases your risk of developing abnormal blood clots in your veins (deep vein thrombosis) and lungs (pulmonary embolism).
• Antiphospholipid syndrome: This rare autoimmune disorder, which often affects people who have lupus, can cause blood clots in several areas of your body.
• Protein S deficiency: Protein S is a natural anticoagulant in your blood. Anticoagulants prevent blood from clotting. Protein S helps keep other proteins from making too many blood clots. This is a rare inherited disorder.
• Protein C deficiency: Like protein S, protein C is a natural anticoagulant that protects you from developing too many blood clots.
• Antithrombin deficiency: This inherited disorder increases your risk of deep vein thrombosis.
• Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria: This rare blood disorder happens when your immune system attacks your red blood cells, increasing your risk of blood clots.
• Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC): DIC is a rare blood clotting disorder that may cause uncontrollable bleeding or clotting.

Some people with blood clotting orders have an increased risk of stroke and heart attack. Call 911 if you think you’re having a pulmonary embolism because you have chest pain and difficulty breathing. Heart attack and stroke are other medical conditions that need emergency treatment.

What are common bleeding disorders?

Bleeding disorders happen when your blood doesn’t clot normally, causing you to bleed more than usual. Bleeding disorders include:

• Von Willebrand disease: This condition is the most common bleeding disorder in the U.S. Most people who have von Willebrand disease inherited a mutated gene from one of their biological parents. Some people develop this condition as a complication of certain cancers, autoimmune disorders, and heart and blood vessel diseases.
• Inherited hemophilia: This rare genetic condition may make you bleed more than usual. There are three types of hemophilia: Type A or classic hemophilia, Type B or Christmas disease and Type C (Rosenthal syndrome).
• Thrombocytopenia: This condition happens when you have a low platelet count. Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) are examples of diseases that cause thrombocytopenia.
• Fibrinogen deficiency conditions: Fibrinogen is another protein that helps your blood clot.If you don’t have enough fibrinogen or your fibrinogen doesn’t work as it should, you may have abnormal bleeding or clotting issues.

What is the most common type of blood disorder?

Anemia represents the most common type of noncancerous blood disorder. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 3 million people in the U.S. have some type of anemia. Anemia happens when you don’t have enough healthy red blood cells. Some types of anemia are inherited, but people may also acquire or develop them.

Acquired anemias

• Pernicious anemia: Pernicious anemia, one of the causes of vitamin B12 deficiency, is an autoimmune condition that prevents your body from absorbing vitamin B12.
• Iron-deficiency anemia: As its name implies, iron-deficiency anemia happens when your body doesn’t have enough iron to make hemoglobin. Red blood cells need hemoglobin to carry oxygen throughout your body.
• Megaloblastic anemia: Megaloblastic anemia is a type of anemia that can happen when you don’t get enough vitamin B12 and/or vitamin B9 (folate).
• Aplastic anemia: This anemia happens when stem cells in your bone marrow don’t make enough blood cells.
• Autoimmune hemolytic anemia: In autoimmune hemolytic anemia, your immune system attacks your red blood cells.
• Macrocytic anemia: This anemia happens when your bone marrow makes unusually large red blood cells. Macrocytic anemia may be caused by myelodysplastic syndrome, low folate, low B12 vitamin, liver disease, alcohol use and certain medications.
• Normocytic anemia: In this type of anemia, you have fewer red blood cells than usual. There are many causes of normocytic anemia.

Inherited anemias

• Sickle cell anemia: Sickle cell anemia changes your red blood cells’ shape, turning round flexible discs into stiff and sticky sickle cells that block blood flow.
• Fanconi anemia: Fanconi anemia is a rare blood disorder. Anemia is one sign of Fanconi anemia.
• Diamond-Blackfan anemia: This inherited disorder keeps your bone marrow from making enough red blood cells.
• Thalassemia: In thalassemia, your body produces less hemoglobin, resulting in small red blood cells and anemia.

Other anemia types

Some types of anemia may be inherited but can also be acquired:

• Hemolytic anemia: In this anemia, your red blood cells break down or die faster than usual.
• Sideroblastic anemia: Sideroblastic anemia results from abnormal iron use during red blood cell development.
• Microcytic anemia: This anemia happens when your red blood cells don’t have enough hemoglobin so they’re smaller than usual. Microcytic anemia occurs with iron deficiency, thalassemia, sideroblastic anemia and in some cases of anemia of chronic disease.