1. Bleeding problems only affect boys: While only boys can have hemophilia, girls can be symptomatic carriers, which means they are mild bleeders, or have Von Willebrand disease (http://www.hemophilia.org/NHFWeb/MainPgs/MainNHF.aspx?menuid=182&contentid=47&rptname=bleeding), which affects both boys and girls.
2. Everyone with hemophilia has the same degree of deficiency: Hemophilia is characterized in three levels (http://www.hemophilia.org/NHFWeb/MainPgs/MainNHF.aspx?menuid=180&contentid=45&rptname=bleeding): mild (clotting activity about 5 percent), moderate (clotting activity between 1-5 percent) and severe (clotting level less than 1 percent).
3. Certain vitamins or foods can cure hemophilia: Since hemophilia is a bleeding disorder caused by a missing essential clotting protein, no foods or vitamins will cure the disease. Only having the appropriate factor level administered at the time of a bleed will help control bleeding.
4. If a hemophiliac gets a cut, they will automatically hemorrhage and bleed to death: People with hemophilia do not bleed more than a person without the disease. They could continue bleeding when a person with a normal clotting factor will stop bleeding. However, most of the problem is with internal bleeding (http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/01/science/myths-about-aids-danger-and-hemophiliacs-assailed.html?pagewanted=1) after surgery or trauma.
5. Hemophilia can go away or become milder as a person ages: Because the disease is caused by the missing clotting protein, hemophilia will never go away and the person will always have the same level of factor deficiency.
6. All people with hemophilia are direct descendants of Queen Victoria: While Queen Victoria’s family is famously documented as carriers of the disease, records as early as 1803 show that women outside the royal family have passed the disease to their sons.
7. People with hemophilia are unable to lead normal lives: With proper treatment, education and preparation in case of a bleed, people with hemophilia are able to lead full, normal lives.
Sources:
Associated Content http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1593442/seven_myths_about_hemophilia.html?cat=52
National Hemophilia Foundation
http://www.hemophilia.org/NHFWeb/MainPgs/MainNHF.aspx?menuid=180&contentid=45&rptname=bleeding
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/01/science/myths-about-aids-danger-and-hemophiliacs-assailed.html?pagewanted=1