What are MPDs?

MPDs affect how blood cells are produced in our bodies.

Our bodies normally produce billions of blood cells every day. This process occurs inside our bones, in the bone marrow. The bone marrow contains stem cells which grow and mature into all the blood cells that our bodies need: red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Each type of these types of cells has a specific job to do inside our bodies.

When a person has a myeloproliferative disorder something goes wrong with blood cell production. The bone marrow begins to produce either too many blood cells, or sometimes too few. There are three primary types of MPDs, but there are other types as well.

The three types of MPDs most frequently diagnosed are separate disorders which each affect blood cell levels in a different way. These three most frequently diagnosed types are:

Click on the links above to learn more about the individual MPDs.