Finally got my levels checked after being concerned about iron for a while (several years, sometimes taking supplements and sometimes freaking out about iron overload and stopping till I felt bad again). I’m not feeling the worst I’ve ever felt, but I’m not feeling nothing. Pale skin, thinning hair, rls, exercise intolerance, feeling cold and fatigue etc.
My ferritin is 59. I know that ferritin ranges are weird and this is still suboptimal, but it’s higher than I was expecting. I don’t feel the worst ive ever felt but I don’t feel that close to the optimal level either.
My transferrin saturation is 12%, my UIBC is 62.8 umol/L, my serum iron is 8.3 umol/l and my TIBC is 71 umol/l.
Clearly I could do with more iron and I’m not in imminent danger of iron overload, but I am a little confused what these results are telling me about the specifics of my iron status.
I know ferritin can be artificially increased by inflammation, which I did not test for, but by how much? Enough for my actual levels to be much lower? Do my other results indicate that is probably the case? How iron deficient am I? What should I be aiming for here?