Low ferritin, high saturation
Hi everyone. I'm a 27F, and at my yearly routine checkup, my serum iron came back at 50.4 µmol/L (ref 9–30.4). The rest of my results were all good, liver enzymes, kidney were all in the normal range. I was advised to do full iron panel in 2 weeks, which I did in a different lab, because I was sure there was a mixup.2 weeks later, I got the following results:
-Serum iron: 36.0 µmol/L (ref 9–30.4) — HIGH
-Transferrin saturation: 77.92% (ref 12–45%) — HIGH
-TIBC: 46.20 µmol/L (ref 45–76) — low-normal
-UIBC: 10.2 µmol/L (ref 12.5–55.5) — LOW
-Ferritin: 17.10 ng/mL (ref 4.63–204) — normal-low
What obviously confused my doctor is low-normal ferritin level. I will do another iron panel in two weeks, and if the levels stay high, they will order the genetic testing, but with the current ferritin, the doctor believes it's acute and dietary.
The thing is, I don't eat red meat, I don't drink alcohol, out of all iron rich foods, I eat fish and leafy greens once a week.
Vitamin D is the only supplement I regularly take. The collagen powder I bought has 90mg of vitamin C, but I only took it cca 5 times, and not in the days leading up to tests. Both test were fasted (12h prior)
At last year's checkup my serum iron was 23 µmol/L (normal). I donated blood regularly from age 18 until about 2 years ago, when I was turned away twice, ironically, for low hemoglobin.
I know everything will be a lot clearer in couple of weeks, but I would love to know if someone had a similar experience and what was the end result.