You have options. Someone needs to say that to every woman who’s survived a blood clot.

After my second blood clot, I kept running into the same wall. I’d find a blood clot support group, a YouTube channel, an Instagram account, and I’d think — finally, someone is talking about this. And then I’d realize the conversation was built for someone else.

Most menopause accounts were doing good work. Women were learning to ask for more from their doctors. But none of them accounted for blood clot survivors like me. Women for whom hormone therapy isn’t a simple yes or a well-informed no.

Eventually, I stopped waiting for somebody else to show up and decided that somebody was going to be me.

That’s how Speaking of Blood Clots started. Not as a brand strategy. As a frustration with a clear solution.

Multiple clots. No clear reason. A 500-pound question mark.

I’ve survived multiple venous thromboembolism events. Unprovoked — which is the word doctors use when they can’t point to a specific cause. Unprovoked means the risk is ongoing. It means you learn to live with uncertainty as a permanent condition.

Not finding an answer wasn’t an endpoint. It was the starting point for learning to ask better questions. Learning that lifestyle was part of the picture, even if nobody had handed me that piece.