Hemophiliacs are born with a genetic abnormality inherited from their mothers that prevents blood from clotting. It used to be accepted that women only carried and passed on the faulty gene responsible. But now we know that women can be bleeders: either mild hemophiliacs, with a chromosomal abnormality that means they lack necessary clotting factors; or with genetic abnormalities such as von Willebrand disease, which cause clotting derangement.
