Hailey Bieber Opens Up About Her Blood Clot And Explains That It Came From 3 Different Factors, Including Birth Control
Hailey Bieber, 25, announced about a month ago that she suffered a small blood clot to her brain. The world was shocked to hear the news as she's a seemingly healthy young woman.
Although Hailey announced the news of the blood clot on her Instagram story in March, she didn't give any details as to why it happened or how the clot had traveled to her brain. Now that she's recovering very well, she decided to sit down and tell the story in her own words.
Hailey Bieber Says the Blood Clot in Her Brain Came from 3 Different Factors
Hailey started at the very beginning of the story, explaining that she suddenly felt strange one morning over breakfast with her husband. She felt a tingling sensation down her arm to her fingertips, and when her husband Justin Bieber asked if she was okay, she realized she couldn't get the words out of her mouth. Suddenly, she wasn't even able to speak, and her face was drooping down on one side.
As she was being taken to the hospital, she was being asked basic questions like what her name was, where she was, how old she was, etc. But although she knew the answers in her head, she couldn't get the answers out of her mouth. She was very scared she was having a stroke.
But at the emergency room, they tested her for a stroke, and it turned out she no longer had any of the symptoms; plus, her speech started to come back to normal. That's when they started running tests on what could possibly have caused this clot. The doctors tested her for a PFO (patent foramen ovale), which is something "that you are born with," Hailey explained. "It's supposed to close on its own except sometimes it doesn't," she said. "It's a flap between the right and left chambers of the heart."
The tests at the ER didn't show any signs of a PFO, so after she was feeling okay, they discharged her. However, Hailey said the doctors concluded that there were three contributing factors as to why she experienced a blood clot. The first factor was birth control.
"I had just recently started birth control pills, which I should've never been on because I'm somebody who suffered from migraines anyway, and I just did not talk to my doctor about this," Hailey said. She urged women to check in with their doctor before they start birth control especially if you're someone who suffers from migraines.
"The second thing was, I had recently had Covid, and that was something that they thought was a contributing factor," she said.
Finally, Hailey had just flown to Paris and back in a short amount of time. She slept both ways throughout the whole flight, didn't get up to walk around, and she didn't think about wearing compression socks.
However, even though the doctors had a pretty good idea of where the clot came from, they still couldn't figure out how it traveled to her brain, because usually clots are pumped into the lungs where they are resolved without issue.
Hailey Bieber Got Tests Done That Concluded She Had a PFO
The day after she returned home from the ER, she went to UCLA to run some more thorough tests, and that's when they found that she did in fact have a PFO. "They actually found that I had a grade 5 PFO which is the highest grade that you can have so mine was fairly large," Hailey said. "But at this point I was just grateful they found it and they knew it was there."
The conclusion was that the blood clot traveled into her heart, but the heart wasn't able to filter the clot into the lungs. Instead, the clot "actually escaped through the flap or the hole in my heart and it traveled to my brain and that is why I suffered a TIA." A TIA is a transient ischemic attack that is characterized as a mini-stroke, hence Hailey losing her ability to talk and her facing drooping on one side.
Hailey opted in for a PFO closure procedure, in which the doctors place a small button that buttons closed the flap in the heart and "eventually your heart tissue grows back over the closure device."
"It went very smoothly. I'm recovering really well, really fast. I feel great," she concluded. "I just feel really relieved."
Hailey ended by thanking all the doctors and staff who helped her find the culprit of her blood clot, especially the doctor who performed the PFO closure.