I’ve only been on warfarin since Dec 2021 due to a blood clot in bowel. My questions are, am I at higher risk of further blood clots whilst flying (even short haul), do I need to declare to my travel insurer that I take warfarin and would I need to tell the cabin crew so I could walk up and down the plane during the flight?
Many thanks.
No need . I've been on it since 2004 and why do you think you need to walk up and down? You are less likely to suffer DVT than the average long haul passenger being anticoagulated.
Hiya Dory,
Up until CoVid mugged the world I flew often to Sydney from Heathrow. I've been on Warfarin since January 2010 and I self test with my own Coaguchek INR testing device and I never have issues. No need to tell flight crew. Make sure you keep well hydrated in flight ( water) and you can walk up and down the cabin to your little hearts content. So long as the seat belt sign is off anyway. When you are seated you can still exercise by moving your feet/ankles and you could always try flight socks.
Trust me - no worries.
John
Thank you for your replies.
I'm concernedly surprised that some doctors are still prescribing warfarin when there are so many newer and better blood thinners available.
Hi Dory -
This is a late reply and may well be a moot point by now but yes, you definitely do need to inform your travel insurance of both any medications you're taking and the reason why.
If you had a (hopefully) minor accident, for example, and were bleeding to the point that you needed treatment, not informing the insurer pre travel would invalidate your insurance. If you put in a claim to your travel insurance for anything medical they will ask your doctor for a full record of your recent history. That has happened to me so I wanted to be sure you knew.
Hi Helen, thank you for your reply.
We informed our insurance company and they were fine with it, no premium loading or higher excess.
I needed to have a blood test whilst abroad, it cost €40 euro got result 2 hours later which I emailed to the warfarin nurses who emailed back with my new dosage.
So all went well, don’t know why I was worried.
Brilliant result! 
Personally my travel insurance went up from £58 to £310 when I 'declared' my AFib, though to be fair I hadn't had the insurance for a couple of years due to Covid. I'm not taking any meds currently and I did wonder whether the meds would have increased it, reduced it or not had any effect. And I was going to the US, which is the most expensive insurance wise.
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