Sorry much too much info.

Hello,

My 3 year old daughter has recently been diagnosed with ITP. I am wondering if it can run in families?

I have been reading the symptoms and realised that I have some of them. My periods are really heavy and always have been. I use a mooncup and I have just taken note of the amount of blood. I read that between 30-40ml is average, but over 80ml is considered very heavy. The period that I've just had was really light and only lasted 2 days, it is normally 5-7 days (this is really odd for me). But the amount of blood was 176ml. I would say that a normal period is probably at least double that. Also, after having each of my three girls the midwifes said that my blood loss during labour was really high and I bleed for 13 weeks each time.

I want to wait for my next period before booking a doctors appointment just so that I have a more acurate blood loss. But, in the mean time, I'm just wondering if I could maybe also have ITP. Can it run in families? Also, if I have got it, wouldn't have been picked up in the blood tests when I was pregnant?

The easiest thing to do is see your GP and get a CBC. If your platelet count is low, then you'll know. Since you say you've had heavy periods for a while and had blood work while you were pregnant, it should have been found then. People can also have platelet function problems that result in excess bleeding. Those are special tests and it won't show up on a CBC.

My guess is that you should also see your Gyne - it may be a problem there.

ITP usually does not run in families, but sometimes more than one family member has it.

ITP usually does not run in families, but sometimes more than one family member has it.

Sometimes, though rarely, it does run in families. See the post "how rare is familial ITP?"

While it's rare to have more than one family member with ITP, it's more common to have more than one autoimmune condition in the family of the ITP patient. In mine, several of us have Hashimoto's which is autoimmune hypothryroidism. One of it's common symptoms is heavy menstral bleeding. You may want to pay a visit to the gyn to check for other causes like uterine fibroids and to give you some peace of mind.

Heavy periods are one thing, but it's also worth noting if you've had any other symptoms (eg petechiae, bad bruising from a small knock or unexplained bruising). ITP isn't genetic, but that's not to say that family menbers can't have it.

By pure coincidence my second cousin has it, but she's family by marriage, not by blood.