r/irondeficiency

I can see that my levels of Iron tend to drop when I space the Iron from EOD to 3 a week. So I'd like to try something that I can afford to take EOD withouth the digestive consequences of it. I've read something about Three arrows, unfortunately I don't think I can get it in the UK

Thank you

I think for me it's the occasional digestive upset.

Around September I was in the hospital for vestibular migraine like symptoms (which I didn’t know they were at that time) and I completed a blood test which ended up being completely normal. They told me my ferritin levels were completely normal and that I had no nutrient deficiencies. I developed severe depression in December, which then resulted in severe physical symptoms that would keep me bedridden for at least a week when they occurred. This ended up leading me to go to the doctor in may since I saw no improvements and it was affecting my daily life. I completed a blood test which ended up saying that my ferritin was 17. My hemoglobin and everything else was completely normal. Does anyone have an explanation for the sudden drop in iron? I have not had any changes in my diet, and my periods are completely normal and have not gotten heavier. I also have not had any symptoms of any kind of stomach issues?

Got bloods done a few years ago, everything came back normal. However over the past couple years I’ve had some health changes.

I started getting heart palpitations lasting for as long as 25 mins, they make me tight chested and light headed. Vision goes black when I stand up too. I went to the doctors for that and had 2 week long ECG’s but nothing came back. They did test my blood pressure and it drops when I stand.

I’ve always had pretty bad brain fog but i may very well have ADHD which could explain that.

Over the past few weeks though I’ve been so exhausted, I started yawning a lot a few months ago but now I’m having multiple 1 hour naps after college then sleeping 9-10 hours and still feeling constantly tired.

As for physical symptoms, i don’t believe under my eyes are too pale tbh however i do have pretty ridgy nails!

Side note: My mum always says I have yellow-ish skin but could just be genetics since I’ve been pretty yellow since I was a kid LOL

Oh and my feet are always FREEZING 😭

Help! Should I get my bloods done again?

This is not a new story. 10 years ago, my ferritin was at 7 and that's when I was diagnosed with celiac disease. I have followed a strict gluten free diet and have supplemented with heme iron every day. My ferritin has never gotten above 70 in ten years. Currently it is 28- and I feel like complete crap. I just need to hear someone who shares a similar story.
I'm 54, no period (hysterectomy 25 years ago) and have three autoimmune diseases that I do my best to treat and control. I believe I am constantly low on estrogen, low in D despite supplementation, and my ferritin is low despite supplementation.
I normally have some anxiety but as of late my anxiety is ridiculous, I am spiraling down Google searches that have me believing I have horrible neurological diseases. Has low ferritin had this effect on any of you? Please share because I'm at my wits end.
I feel like I have energy for an hour and then it's zapped. My legs are shaky and it takes a lot to go up stairs. I get dizziness and in general I just feel unmotivated and hopeless.
I am very proactive with my healthcare. I do everything the doctors tell me to do, but right now I'm really feeling deflated.
I hope I can get an infusion soon. I saw a hematologist who is going to run a few more labs and submit to my insurance. Can anyone please offer a similar story or some encouraging words?

Hi all,

I (43F) am dealing with extreme fatigue, dizziness, weakness etc. I also have brittle nails, frequently cold. I often wake up feeling knackered and almost fall asleep driving by 10am. I’ve had a sleep study but nothing showed up.

I went through surgical menopause 18m ago so definitely some of the fatigue would be related to that as I have zero hormones, but wondering if I could maybe be struggling more than usual because of the low TSAT levels on my last test. My iron and ferritin were great BUT my TSAT is lower than normal - 18% (normal is between 20-45). Doctors didn’t worry about it and my oncologists (had breast cancer treatment a few years ago) didn’t even blink.
But D is at the very high levels (in normal range) and my B12 perfect too.

I live a very healthy life, before my fatigue kicked in I was an early riser, loved lifting weights most days and walking the dogs. Running after my 2 busy boys under 10. I eat ridiculously well most of the time. Recently went gluten free as found my psoriasis was linked to that. Removed gluten and my auto immune calmed down massively.

I’m so sick of feeling exhausted. I’m on holidays and my husband had to take the kids fishing and leave me on the couch in our villa as I’m unable to move, just so lethargic.

Would love to know if anyone fixed their TSAT and fixed their fatigue?

Has anyone had any of these more unusual symptoms? I've noticed the corners of my mouth cracking and inflamed!

Reading about how people suffer with iron deficiency surprised me a lot. And makes me wonder if I just accepted a lot of stuff lately as being "part of adult life".

I'm in marathon training and that's why I got some blood values checked, just in case there's something making it harder than it has to be. Was maybe expecting slightly low vitamin D or magnesium or something, not severe iron deficiency, with ferritin being at 14.

I still have normal hemoglobin, maybe that's why I'm not feeling super bad. That's why I also was going to donate blood last month, actually. Maybe I would've crashed after! I cancelled the appointment because of marathon training.

Yes, I have been feeling tired a lot for a loooong time, but thought it's just how it is working full time, and everybody is exhausted right. I'm sleeping very badly too, it takes me 1-2 hours to fall asleep and I wake up 3-5 times every night. Didn't think more of it. But tada, could be bc of low ferritin.

Sometimes I'm sore for up to a week after a single cross training, thought I'm just not fit enough. With the marathon training come a lot of small niggles and injuries for me, I thought that's just how it is ramping up running volume and tried to manage it (with lots of physiotherapy amongst others).

My heart rate goes up very quickly while running, again I thought I'm just not that fit, or a high pulse is natural for me. My VO2-Max was continuously declining the past months, even though I ran more than ever before. Thought it was because I focus on running slowly. My HRV is quite low most days, without me being obviously sick, which made me wonder a bit, but then I ignored it.

I haven't been very concentrated at work but thought it's because I'm bored or just not disciplined enough.

I have usually not felt like meeting people and getting social, thought it's because I'm introvert.

Sooo, I felt like I was healthy and living a normal life, and now it turns out so much might improve and was unnecessarily hard, especially concerning the running! That's exciting. I'm not sure how quickly I can expect to feel improvement (taking oral iron), and if I can be up to more normal levels for my marathon which is in a bit over two months. But, I'm definitely looking forward 😄

Soo I’ve been dealing with very debilitating symptoms for years. Sometimes they’d be on and off. But since January of this year, it’s just gotten progressively worse. Dizziness, lightheadedness, fast heart rate (especially all of these upon standing), constantly sleepy 24/7, feeling physically and mentally fatigued, no motivation, temperature deregulation (I’m always too cold or too hot), MAJOR brain fog, and feeling incredibly shaky and heavy when I’m standing and walking and all I want to do it low down. From all of this, I believed I had POTS for years due to having COVID. But I dug into more research, and I decided to get my ferritin levels checked because I found out low iron/ferritin can perfectly mimic POTS. And sure enough, my ferritin level came back at 14, but my hemoglobin and everything else on the panel was normal. I also got my Vitamin D levels and they came back severely low as well at a 9.9ng/mL. I got this test on June 3rd, so just about a month ago. I’ve been trying to eat more red meat like steaks, burgers, etc. I’m also taking iron supplements every other day for better absorption. My doctor says since my ferritin is in “normal range”, then I’m fine and no action is needed. I just feel so tired and drained all day everyday. I’m currently on a medical leave from work and have been since May, supposed to go back to work in August, so I’ve been doing literally nothing for months. I wake up, lay in bed all day, some days I feel better enough to get up a little bit and shower, warm up some food, maybe play some video games for a bit, and then go to sleep and repeat. And I also live in Texas, so going out of the house and driving anywhere in the heat (my AC doesn’t work) it god awful as well because I will pass out from the heat. I just want to feel better. I’m only 21, I want to get back out and have fun and do all the things but even just doing nothing is incredibly draining. For those who had low iron/ferritin, how long did it take you to start to feel better? And what did you do? I would appreciate any and all advice!

i've been taking 42mg of bisglycinate with vit c, b12 and folate every second day for the past two weeks.

a week ago my temperature began increasing up to 37.2c (99f, it was always lower than that), i feel feverish from time to time, sometimes very hot, sometimes cold, overstimulated, kind of weak, i get periods where my limbs feel very restless and i feel like my base hr is a bit higher now. today i felt as if i took some stimulating drug and paced a lot, then crashed in the afternoon and had to take a nap. i've also had trouble falling asleep recently (ive already had early morning awakenings for the past several months, so this is rough).

did anybody else experience something like this?? nothing else fits timeline-wise than my iron + b12 + folate supplement. my nervous system was sensitive before, so this might be worsening my symptoms.

I know its ironic to ask about something not involving anemia in an anemic subreddit but i am sorry i am not sure where to put it.

When i was a teenager i had symptoms like brainfog, being bad at studies, motivation problems, heart palpitations, hair thinning etc but when i couldnt diagnose it because i wasnt anemic and no doctor bothered to check my ferritin.

Fast forward many years around 6 years and the symptoms persisted but i learned to live with it and at around age 21 i got a ferritin test and it was severely low (5.84ng/ml) and i started supplementing ferrous sulfate, in 4 months i got upto 40ng/ml but then i was impatient and had my doctor give me an IV (500mg ferric carboxymaltose) and 3 months after that i retested ferritin and it was 500ng/ml ! which is above normal range but it wasnt threatening.

its been now 6 months post IV yet i have only had minimal improvements, i did have improvements but they were very subtle and minimal, is this normal? should i test something else? should i wait more? its freaking me out.

If anyone has more questions i will specify

Hi!

Got a referral for an iron infusion due to low ferritin. Wondering if anyone has experience receiving Monoferric while breastfeeding. Any issues/side effects?

Thanks in advance!

I started having symptoms a few weeks ago of feeling fatigued, not sleeping well, weight gain but no appetite, dizzness, irritability etc.

In the past, whenever this happens, I check my thyroid and iron. I also am on a birth control that has disrupted my cycle, 1 year postpartum and almost 40 so there are various other things that could have accounted for this (just as a disclaimer).

I got lab work done. All my thyroid bloodwork was actually perfect for once. However, I got my iron back today and while my iron and iron saturation were within the range, my ferritin was low (around 25). I assume this is the reason I have felt funky, but wasn't sure if there was scientific evidence that one could have normal iron and hemoglobin but low ferritin.

My new pcp told me all labs were normal …

I'll preface by saying that, as far as I know, this doesn't concern iron from animal sources.

I'm a vegetarian. I have been carefully adjusting my diet for a year now in order to up my iron intake, yet I hardly reaped any benefits. Some days I'd feel a lot better, but most of the time I wouldn't notice much of a difference from before I changed my diet.

Then last week I randomly stumbled upon a little fun fact: the polyphenols contained in coffee (and tea) bind to non-heme iron in your digestive tract, creating an insoluble molecule that the body cannot easily adsorb. As a result, it is recommended to consume such beverages at least 2 hours before or after an iron rich meal.

Thinking back on it I never quite followed this rule. It now makes sense why the effects of the increased iron intake were random: the iron from my breakfast and lunch was pretty much nullified, as I always drink my coffee at the same time as those meals. That only leaves dinner. Whenever I had an especially iron rich dinner I did feel fine the next day...obviously, however, not all my dinners contain such high amounts of iron, so there would be days in which I was simply starving my body of the mineral.

For a couple days now I have been drinking coffee strictly 2 hours after breakfast and lunch, and the difference is downright massive. I feel as energetic as when I was taking supplements.

Give it a try if you're a vegan or a vegetarian and didn't know of the coffee thing.

Looking for insight from anyone who's been through this. My hematologist was completely unbothered by my ferritin of 13, and my regular doctor doesn't seem too concerned either, but I'm still dealing with severe fatigue and brain fog daily.

Some background: my ferritin was tested at 13 on June 5th. In the past when my iron was low I tried ferrous sulfate, but after about a month my saturation came back through the roof and it was also really hard on my stomach. So this time I switched to iron bisglycinate. Someone on this sub mentioned it was fine to double up, so I've been taking 2 capsules (56mg) every other night.

Current protocol:
- 2x Iron Bisglycinate 28mg every other night (56mg) (Nature's Bounty - (Each pill contains Iron 28mg as Ferrous Bis-Glycinate, Vitamin C 60mg as Ascorbic Acid, Folate 667mcg DFE [400mcg as folic acid], Vitamin B-12 8mcg as Cyanocobalamin,
- Heme Iron Polypeptide 10.5mg morning and afternoon (21mg daily)
- 6x beef liver capsules daily (I buy Ancestral)
- Lactoferrin 500mg daily
- Vitamin C 1,000mg daily
- Methyl B12/Folate every other day (Jarrows Formula - has 1.5mg vitamin bc, 680mg folate, 1,000mcg vitamin b1 as methylcobalamin)

I take Vyvanse and Adderall for ADHD, and honestly without them I'd be a complete potato right now. The fatigue and brain fog have been really difficult.

Retesting in about a month from June 5th. Anyone been through something similar? How long did it take before you started feeling more like yourself? Any insight appreciated.. feeling pretty dismissed by doctors on this one.

https://preview.redd.it/l852qhlryhah1.png?width=1436&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b06667d4adbfe3af7d8e051f477d5bfa5e354e5

Hi guys,

I recently had unusual iron results and spoke to my doctor, who said not to take iron supplements. I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth getting a second opinion or repeating the labs.

My iron panel: ferritin 42 ng/mL, serum iron 193 H, TIBC 378, transferrin saturation 51% H.

I usually take a prenatal (but I didn't take it the day before or the day of the blood test), so I’m wondering if that could have affected the serum iron/% saturation. I’m also an avid coffee drinker.

I’ve been having symptoms lately (and have had this issue throughout the past few years), especially right after my menstrual period: heart palpitations, tinnitus, fatigue, anxiety, cold extremities, poor focus, and zero motivation.

Other relevant labs: CBC was normal - WBC 6.0, RBC 4.46, hemoglobin 14.1, hematocrit 44.6, platelets 338. MCV 100.0, RDW 13.9. Vitamin D 56. Vitamin B12 438. Prior folate in 2024 was 14.4, normal.

In 2024, my iron panel looked very different: ferritin 30, serum iron 50, TIBC 332, saturation 15% low.

Has anyone had something similar, normal-ish ferritin but high serum iron and high saturation? Did it turn out to be supplement/timing-related, or did you repeat fasting labs / get further testing?

Please let me know what you guys think, thank you!

Hello everyone. I had an iron infusion a week ago and I I was told I could have a fever the day after. But I actually felt very fine and energetic the day after, but then the fever came in four days later and and it was the worst fever and chills ever. I also noticed my face got kind of darker like it’s tan although I didn’t spend much time on the sun. Does it have to do with post infusion? sucks that doctors didn’t mention that part.

I am a 43 year old female, 5'4", currently 141 lbs. Mother of 3 (kids are 10,8, and 5). I joined OTF in January 2024. I was looking to carve out some time to work on improving my health and get into good shape. My goals are to gain muscle and lose the stubborn belly and back fat.

I started going 2x times a week then a few months down the road bumped up to 4x a week. All 2G sessions. I never felt energetic but always tired after class. I sweated a lot, I was hitting 12-15 splat points a session. I kept track of my diet, always around 1600 calories, definitely not enough protein, but still low calorie and I've always eating very healthy - no junk food, low sugar, no alcohol. I developed a painful shin splint in one of my legs. My sleep started to suffer, my body was in a lot of pain at night and I couldn't get proper rest. Finally my period, which has always been regular, halted, and that's when I knew my body was stressed out. I got an in body scan done and was discouraged by the results. Over 32% body fat.

I cut back to 3 sessions a week - this time 2 total strength classes and just 1 2g. I reviewed my diet and added more protein shakes to up my protein intake. I started monitoring my calories down to the macro level using MyFitnessPal even more diligently. I tried to eat more. I started gaining weight and feeling bloated. At class I felt sick, like I was going to throw up, from feeling so full. My period came back and my body showed the signs of stress decreasing. I still could not sleep as I was feeling too full at night.

I did a slight cut to my calories so help with not feeling so full at night. I started to feel better. But at class I felt like I have no gas in the tank. I didn't feel I could add more weight to my routine, but rather, cut down in weight. I tried to ignore the monitors and just try my best. Two more months go by. I just did another in body scan last week. It showed literally zero change from my scan 2 months prior.

I had my doctor do a full blood workup on me. Last year we found low ferritin count of 4. Now it is at a 6. I've changed my iron supplement.

At this point I am feeling very discouraged. I've loved the community at OTF but I've never done a workout regime for so long and not seen any results. How is my low ferritin playing a role? And what explanation could there be for literal no change to my fat loss?