When It’s Not Just Heavy Menses: A Nurse’s Guide to Recognizing von Willebrand Disease

By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor

Blood red sky by Micky Zlimen, via Flickr

Quick, what’s the most common inherited bleeding disorder? As you might have guessed from the giveaway title, it’s not hemophilia. It’s von Willebrand disease, and it affects about 1.3% of the U.S. population.

Yet many nurses and other clinicians, as well as the public, are unaware of this disease, its symptoms, and the associated risks. Sequelae can include complications during pregnancy and childbirth, chronic joint disease, even death. In girls and women, menorrhagia is the most common symptom; while the disease is equally prevalent in both sexes, it can be more problematic for menstruating females. In our June CE article, “Just Heavy Menses or Something More? Raising Awareness of von Willebrand Disease,” author Josie Weiss seeks to improve the odds that nurses will know when to suspect that a patient has the disorder and what to do once diagnosis is confirmed.

Simply put, von Willebrand disease is caused by “genetic defects in the concentration, structure, or function of von Willebrand factor,” which is a protein essential to blood clotting. These defects result in episodes of excessive or prolonged bleeding, which can be mild to severe in intensity. Weiss describes the three main types of […]

2016-11-21T13:09:56-05:00June 11th, 2012|Nursing|0 Comments
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A Decidedly Female Focus: June Highlights

By Maureen Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN editor-in-chief

This month’s issue of AJN has a decidedly female focus, from the cover to the last page.

On the cover, we used an illustration of ancient Roman mosaics depicting women exercising.

The editorial focuses on the politicization of women’s health issues. (Read it and see if you agree—we’ve already received both pro and con letters.)

AJN Reports discusses safety issues connected with the often unregulated sharing of breast milk among women via Internet-enabled sale or donation.

The two CE offerings focus on women’s health: “Managing Menopausal Symptoms” is the third in our series on women’s health and provides an overview of managing a few of the more common and troublesome menopausal “changes”—for the sake of historical perspective, we included an archival piece from 1910, “Dangers of the Menopause” (abstract only; archival articles require a subscription).

The other CE, “Just Heavy Menses or Something More? Raising Awareness of von Willebrand Disease,” takes a detailed look at an inherited bleeding disorder that afflicts equal numbers of men and women. While much of the article’s information on the disorder and its recognition and management is relevant for both sexes, the article draws particular attention to women who are often not diagnosed because the disorder may present through symptoms associated with a woman’s menstruation pattern.

Lastly, “Seized,” our moving Reflections essay this month, tells the story of a mother’s  feeling of powerlessness in the face of her daughter’s […]

2016-11-21T13:09:57-05:00June 6th, 2012|Nursing|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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