Possible H63D?
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Just wondering if anyone is in a similar situation.
My Ferritin used to be at 129 back in 2021. It went down to 66 in 2023, then 29 in 2025. Just 6 weeks ago it was at 23. Retested again at 28 and now it's back down to 23.
My iron panel is all normal, with the most recent saturation at 46%. Before that it was 44%, 40%. When my Ferritin was higher a few years back my saturation was lower around 34-38%. Once last year my saturation was 49% with Ferritin of 29. I'm afraid to start iron supplements without getting to see a hematologist and ruling out the HFE gene possibly? My father has no genes and my mother just has the one H63D. The higher saturation scares me without even supplementing yet.
Last year my hemoglobin was on the edge of being too low at 11.8 and hematocrit was 35.9.
I was barely eating any red meat for a few years now and was also following a stricter calorie deficit to lose weight. I lost the weight and since then I have been eating maintenance around 1,600 calories a day. After doing more research on Ferritin recently (none of my doctors even told me that 29 or 23 was low at all this whole time) and I've been having weird symptoms that aren't related to my Hashimoto's. I increased my red meat intake to twice a week 6 weeks ago.
I just had another blood test 3 weeks ago into eating more red meat to recheck my CBC, iron and Ferritin. My hemoglobin is now normal at 12.7 and hematocrit 38.3.
I'd also like to note I've been low in B12 for years so I take a cyanocobalamin B12 supplement (gel pill) for years off and on. My original B12 level years ago was probably around 250. 6 weeks ago it was at 360 from only taking 1 1,000mcg a week. I decided to increase it to twice a week at the same time I started eating more red meat. My B12 went from 371 to 800 in 3 weeks. I'm wondering if doing this caused my Ferritin to go back down from 28 to 23.. but I have no idea. I was reading that B12 can deplete Ferritin stores over time. For now I am going back to once a week again.
So now I'm pretty sure I have to take an iron supplement but I am waiting for the hematologist appointment to rule out why my saturation is elevated sometimes. I feel like my symptoms are just getting worse and I also I became over medicated on my thyroid medication (working on that separate issue).
My symptoms are occasional lightheadedness, RLS (I think it is, just lots of vibrating in my lower legs.. seems worse at night), sometimes vibrating in my upper back, brain fog, sometimes nausea, body aches off and on, general feeling of just off.
I also had an endoscopy 2 years ago that just showed some mild inactive gastritis, I've had gastrin and parietal antibodies tested both negative.
I'd also like to note I used to take a multivitamin with 100% daily value of iron in it for years, but stopped around 2020.