Blood clots not uncommon for travelers

“I was just released from the hospital today after suffering from multiple small DVTs (Deep Vein Thrombosis) throughout my left leg and a minor PE (Pulmonary Embolism)” wrote a woman to a website forum that focuses on those issues. “I am 35 years old and otherwise healthy. I was taking a low dose of estrogen birth control pills and had taken two 6-hour flights over two days.”

Bingo! Long flights plus birth control and, of course, we don’t know what other risk factors she might have had such as whether or not she’d inherited a disorder that makes her blood clot more easily or if she was obese or a smoker.

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