AWARENESS
Blood Clots and Women’s Health: Why Awareness Still Matters
Blood Clot Awareness Month (BCAM) offers an opportunity to highlight a serious yet commonly overlooked health risk. Each March, patients, families, healthcare professionals, advocacy organizations, and other stakeholders come together to raise awareness about blood clots.
The observance traces its roots to 2005, when a Senate bill sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter established March as “Deep Vein Thrombosis Awareness Month” following the 2003 death of journalist David Bloom. In the years since, the initiative has grown into a nationwide effort focused on education, awareness, and community engagement.
Since its work began in 2013, the Rowan Foundation has looked forward to this time each year and welcomes the energy and collaborative efforts it brings. Today, we remain focused on our mission of advancing awareness of women’s health and clotting through educational resources, patient storytelling initiatives, and community participation throughout BCAM. Readers can explore the Foundation’s 2026 Blood Clot Awareness Month activities and resources here.
Awareness Gaps Remain
Despite growing awareness efforts over the years, many people still do not recognize the warning signs of a blood clot or understand the factors that may increase their risk. Each year, nearly one million people in the United States experience a blood clot, and approximately 100,000 lives are lost as a result.
Awareness Benefits
- Earlier Symptom Recognition Saves Lives — Blood clots are highly treatable when detected early, but delayed recognition can lead to serious complications or death. Awareness efforts help the public recognize warning signs such as leg swelling, sudden shortness of breath, or chest pain. In women’s health specifically, education is critical because clotting risk may arise during pregnancy, postpartum recovery, or when using certain hormonal therapies. When individuals recognize symptoms sooner, they are more likely to seek urgent care, which can dramatically improve outcomes.
- Better-Informed Healthcare Decisions — Women often encounter clotting risk within wider healthcare decisions, including contraception, fertility treatments, pregnancy, and hormone therapy. Awareness campaigns help ensure that clotting risk becomes part of well-informed decision-making conversations between patients and medical professionals. When women understand how personal risk factors—such as family history, genetic conditions, or previous clotting events—may interact with treatment choices, they are better equipped to participate in shared medical decision-making.
- Closing the Gap Between Research, Clinical Care, and Public Knowledge — Medical research has substantially advanced our knowledge of thrombosis, yet much of that knowledge does not automatically reach the public. Awareness efforts help translate scientific findings into clear, accessible information that patients and families can use in their daily lives. They also create space for collaboration with researchers, clinicians, patient advocates, and public health organizations. In women’s health, especially where clotting risk intersects with reproductive care, maternal health, and hormone therapy, awareness initiatives help ensure that emerging research, clinical guidance, and patient experiences inform one another and lead to more effective prevention and education efforts.
Why Blood Clot Risks Matter in Women’s Health
Multiple factors can contribute to clot formation, including surgery, prolonged immobility, certain medical conditions, and inherited clotting disorders.
For women, additional considerations may arise during key life stages or when using certain hormonal medications.
Healthcare decisions related to hormonal contraception, pregnancy, and hormone therapy may involve discussions about clotting risk as part of wider conversations about benefits, safety, and personal health history. While these treatments are appropriate and beneficial for many women, understanding potential risk factors helps ensure that healthcare decisions are fully informed.
Inherited clotting conditions may also increase risk. These disorders, often referred to as genetic thrombophilias, can increase the likelihood of developing a clot, particularly when combined with other risk factors. View and download a risk factors checklist here.
Moving Awareness Forward
From a public health perspective, the most effective ways individuals and organizations can support Blood Clot Awareness Month fall into a few practical categories: education, conversation, and amplification.
- Share Reliable Health Information — One of the most important ways to participate is simply by sharing credible educational resources. Posting information about blood clot symptoms, risk factors, and prevention on social media, in community newsletters, or within workplace wellness programs helps extend the reach of public health messaging. Clear, accurate information can help someone recognize symptoms sooner and seek care quickly.
- Start Conversations About Risk — Blood Clot Awareness Month provides a natural opportunity to encourage conversations about clotting risk in everyday healthcare discussions. Individuals can ask their healthcare providers about personal risk factors, particularly during life stages such as pregnancy, postpartum recovery, surgery, or when considering hormonal therapies. Families can also discuss health history, including inherited clotting conditions, which can be important in understanding risk.
Understanding Blood Clots
Blood clots most often form in the deep veins of the legs, a condition known as deep vein thrombosis. If part of the clot breaks loose and travels through the bloodstream to the lungs, it can cause a possibly life-threatening condition called pulmonary embolism.
These conditions are collectively known as venous thromboembolism (VTE). Many clots can be treated successfully when identified early, but delayed recognition can lead to serious complications.
Identifying Symptoms
One challenge in raising blood clot awareness is that many people do not recognize the warning signs until they experience them.
Symptoms of a deep vein thrombosis may include:
-
- Swelling in a leg or arm
- Pain or tenderness in a leg or arm
- Warmth or redness in the affected area
Symptoms of a pulmonary embolism can include:
-
- Sudden shortness of breath
- Coughing, including coughing up blood
- Chest pain that may worsen with deep breathing
- Rapid heartbeat
- Lightheadedness or fainting
Because blood clots can become serious quickly, identifying symptoms and seeking medical care immediately can make a critical difference.
- Share Personal Experiences Thoughtfully — For those who feel comfortable doing so, sharing a personal story about a blood clot or clotting disorder can help others recognize symptoms and feel less alone. Patient experiences often bring visibility to conditions that might otherwise remain hidden and can play a powerful role in awareness and education.
- Support Advocacy and Education Efforts — People can also support organizations working in this space by subscribing to newsletters, attending educational events, participating in awareness campaigns, or volunteering. Advocacy groups often provide resources, community support, and educational materials that help extend awareness beyond the clinical setting.
- Encourage Awareness in Professional and Community Settings — Healthcare professionals, educators, employers, and community leaders can integrate blood clot awareness into health programming, professional education, and community outreach. Even small efforts, such as distributing symptom checklists or hosting brief educational sessions, can contribute to broader awareness.
Many Voices, One Message
Ultimately, awareness campaigns like BCAM work best when many voices participate. When patients, families, healthcare professionals, researchers, and advocacy organizations all contribute to the conversation, public understanding grows and more people become equipped to recognize symptoms and seek care when it matters most.
As medical knowledge evolves and new generations of patients enter the healthcare system, the need for clear, accessible education continues. Each year, renewed attention to clotting risks and symptoms helps sustain these conversations and reinforces the importance of awareness, education, and early recognition.
Persistent engagement from patients, healthcare professionals, and advocacy organizations can help support earlier detection, more informed healthcare decisions, and improved outcomes in women’s health.
Read more about women’s health and blood clots.
Get information about blood clot risks and contraception decision-making here.
Learn more about the work of the Rowan Foundation.
