e and a normal female, all the girls will be carriers and all the boys will be normal. Males cannot transmit the disability, and female carriers are free of the disease. Conventional wisdom suggests that 1 in 10,000 males in the United States have hemophilia. However, increased research and focus, on bleeding disorders in general and on bleeding disorders in women specifically, suggest a shift in what is known about who has a bleeding disorder.
             Clotting factor is one of 12 or more proteins found in blood that work together to make blood clot. They are designated by Roman numerals I through XIII. When the body detects bleeding, clotting factors are switched on in a specific order, each sending an activating message to the next. Factor VIII is one of the clotting factor proteins that helps produce the fibrin clot.
             Sufficient quantities of fibrin must be made by the body in order for fibrin to act like a net that holds the platelets together to make a firm blood clot. In persons with hemophilia A, fibrin is not made properly, so firm blood clots do not form in the wound, and bleeding continues.
             There are two major processes involved in blood clotting. The first part has to do with platelets. They are like little shingles which go to where a blood vessel has ruptured, and they stick over the hole and make a plug. This is the first step of making a clot. The plug is only temporary, and the platelets can easily fall off. The platelets soon rupture and release chemicals that attract more platelets and make them "sticky", too. The chemicals released by the rupturing platelets also activate various clotting factors which are proteins in the blood.
             The next step is that fibers form from the activated proteins and mix with the platelets. The fibers a
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