Rare clotting factor deficiencies are a group of inherited bleeding disorders caused by a problem with one or several clotting factors.
Clotting factors are proteins in the blood that control bleeding. Many different clotting factors work together in a series of chemical reactions to stop bleeding. This is called the clotting process.
Problems with factor VIII and factor IX are known as Haemophilia A and B, respectively. Rare clotting factor deficiencies are bleeding disorders in which one of the other clotting factors (i.e. factors I, II, V, V + VIII, VII, X, XI, or XIII) is missing or not working properly. Less is known about these disorders because they are diagnosed so rarely. In fact, many have only been discovered in the last 40 years.