Low ferritin but can’t tolerate iron - please help
This is my first ever post on Reddit, so I apologise if I’m “doing it wrong”, but here it goes..
In 2021 I had ferritin levels of 5, I was very tired but nothing else was dramatically wrong. I took some supplements and never checked it again. Life moved forward and things got busy. I now am 35, have a toddler and a ton of other responsibilities. I honestly feel like a corpse most of the time, have thought about depression or serious burnout or whatever but then started having a bunch of physical symptoms like this insane exhaustion that just doesn’t go, lightheadedness even when laying down, I get so out of breath doing random daily tasks and I have headaches that won’t go with ibuprofen.
I was pretty sure it wasn’t normal and had my ferritin levels checked - I’m at 15, which is much better than where I was at before but how I feel doesn’t seem to reflect it really.. I feel like I just can’t cope with the demands of life. Granted I also had low vit D, but not drastically low.
So I decided it’s a good time to go on iron supplements and found ones that were supposed to be gentle on stomach ( iron bisglycinate + vit c) and I had pretty instant stomach pain and feeling sick. I wasn’t sick but I felt even worse and the stomach ache persisted for 5 days. I’m genuinely terrified to even consider taking it again and feel very hopeless if I’m honest. Like there’s just no winning.
Please if you have any advice, I would be more than happy to hear it. Thank you!
From a very exhausted mama of an amazing toddler, 3 dogs and 4 horses - all of whom I feel are not getting even a sliver of the attention they deserve.