Of the thousands of people who develop chronic graft vs. host disease (cGVHD) every year following a stem cell transplant, it’s estimated that approximately 60% will see it take hold in their mouth. The oral cavity is second only to the skin as the most common site...

Many types of graft vs. host disease (GVHD) affect men and women in similar ways — skin is skin, and lungs are lungs, no matter your sex. But when it comes to GVHD of the urinary system and genitals (also known as genitourinary or urogenital GVHD), things diverge a...

I think we’ve all heard the Pepto Bismol® jingle…you know the one… “If you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea…” (I bet you just sang that as you read it, and I’m sorry…it’ll be stuck in your head all day now!) For people who haven’t had a...

Graft vs. host disease (GVHD) of the nervous system — meaning GVHD that affects either the central nervous system (CNS-GVHD) or peripheral nervous system (PNS-GVHD) — is a serious manifestation of the disease. Because our nervous systems control so many different...

It’s completely normal to feel anger, shock, and sadness when — after going through the extremely difficult transplant experience — you’re hit with graft vs. host disease (GVHD). The uncertainty of not knowing whether your symptoms will improve, how long they’ll last,...

When graft vs. host disease (GVHD) affects the joints, fascia, and muscles throughout the body, movement becomes harder. Joint stiffness, muscle pain, and weakness are common, and can make carrying out daily activities difficult. Imagine a bicycle for a moment… the...

Ready for a mind-blowing statistic? Just one inch of our skin contains almost 20 million cells! That’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? Multiply that to cover an entire body and we each have trillions of skin cells. When GVHD attacks these cells, uncomfortable symptoms like...

When GVHD affects the lungs, inflammation and scarring of the airways can occur. In its early stages people don’t always notice symptoms — so it’s important to talk to your doctor about proactive pulmonary function testing (PFT) during the first several years after a...

If you are suffering from eye problems after bone marrow transplant — things like dryness, itching, redness, and pain — you might have ocular GVHD. When you receive someone else’s stem cells during a bone or blood marrow transplant, the donor’s cells might mistakenly...