Connie Montgomery and the Power of Refusing to Be Dismissed
Some people you meet once and never forget. I met Connie Montgomery over lunch at a conference in Orlando, and within minutes I knew I'd found a kindred spirit — another woman who understood, from the inside, what it means to bleed and be told you're fine.
Connie lives with factor VII deficiency, a rare bleeding disorder. But her story isn't really about a factor level. It's about the decades she spent being dismissed — childhood bruising, periods that started young and never let up, nosebleeds that wouldn't quit — all waved away, until a car accident in her mid-30s finally put her in front of a doctor who looked at her labs and asked the right questions.
That's the part that stays with me. She wasn't diagnosed because the system worked. She was diagnosed because one physician chose to listen.
Why I wanted to share Connie's story
Today, Connie is one of the most decorated advocates in our community — a keynote speaker, board member, and mentor to a rising generation of young women with bleeding disorders. She's carried her voice from her home state all the way to the global stage. And she's still doing the quiet, essential work, too: through the Hope for Hemophilia women's advisory council, she's helped build a referral list of hematologists who genuinely listen to women.
I'm honored to be partnering with Connie to expand that resource and share it right here on Girls Bleed Too. Because if there's one thing every woman fighting for a diagnosis needs, it's a name — a doctor who will believe her.
"I'm going to ride this life until the wheels fall off." — Connie Montgomery
Read Connie's full story
I wrote about Connie's journey — her diagnosis, her decades of advocacy, and her advice for women still searching for answers — in my "Hemophilia and Me" column for Hemophilia News Today.
