No abstract

Patients with generalized joint hypermobility (JHM) may experience excessive bruising/bleeding, with heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) commonly reported. We performed a retrospective review of 30 adolescents seen in a Young Women's Hematology Clinic with both HMB and JHM. We found that (1) a significant delay (mean 36 months, range 5–72) occurred between menarche and referral to specialty care, (2) HMB had moderate to severe impact on school and physical activities in 60% of patients, and (3) most patients (68%) required escalation of their initial therapy. We suggest providers consider JHM as a risk factor for a more complex clinical course.

Although sensitive, the discriminative ability of the tool to identify adolescents with HDs from those without, who presented with HMB, was low. Further research is needed to optimize or develop an adolescent-specific HMB tool for secondary care settings.