Page 15 - HFA Dateline 2021 Q4 Winter

Traditionally, women
often wait years for a

proper bleeding disorders

diagnosis. But more

awareness, advocacy

and treatments are

improving things now and

for future generations.

BY RISA KERSLAKE, FREELANCE WRITER

ristin Voyles didn’t know growing up that she had
von Willebrand disease (VWD). Looking back
Kthough, it made sense. She bruised easily and had
heavy periods. “At 18, I had bursitis in my shoulder as bad
as an almost 80-year-old,” she said.

Voyles is now 43 and living in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma,
with her husband and children. Both she and her husband
have type 1 VWD, and her youngest son has type 3. The
search for answers for her son’s excessive bleeding after
circumcision began at five days old.

“That’s when my anxiety started,” Voyles said. “I just put up a
wall and didn’t know what to think. I was scared to death.”

Her son was six months old when he received a diagnosis.
Voyles and her husband were tested next. Looking back,
she remembered that both her paternal grandfather and
dad hemorrhaged after being diagnosed with cancer. Her
father died soon before her son’s diagnosis.

“We didn’t hit that diagnosis in time to save my father,”
Voyles reflected. Not only was she in disbelief, suddenly
finding herself with a bleeding condition, but her son had
Kristin Voyles with her family one too. “It was devastating, knowing that we’ve changed
my son’s life forever.”

Voyles opted to have a hysterectomy to control her heavy
periods. She has arthritis from years of no treatment for a
condition she didn’t know she had. “I haven’t had to take a
lot of factor,” she said. “If I have surgeries I’ll have to treat,
but I’ve been pretty lucky.”

WINTER 2021 15