Arsed off with doctors ignoring blood results

I think ferritin levels for menstruating women can be lower and no action taken. The last range I saw was 13-150 so my GP would’ve ignored that. For post-menopausal is 50+.

I’d try and eat more iron-rich foods - easy to look up - and a gentle iron supplement.
I’ve often had out of range readings but they don’t seem bothered for some of them 🤷‍♀️ they’re always hot on iron though.

She’s so great and has made such a difference to my life. Helps that she is at exactly the same point of life as me with kids of identical ages, so just gets it.

Agreed - I was lucky that when I had my iron tested although it was in the “normal” range my fab GP (sadly moved on now) said it still wasn’t optimal, and so treated me for low iron appropriately.

I had the same argument ( what's the point of a normal range?) with my GP over my monocytes. They were above range for 9 months (and several blood tests) and I was met with a wall of "doesn't matter". Oddly enough, it matters to me.

what a good GP!

Spoke to my GP as I had multiple symptoms suggesting I had an underactive thyroid. He argued that it was very unlikely but eventually agreed to blood tests. All my tests were satisfactory, despite my ferritin level being more than double the upper of the range. Tests also showed I have Hashimoto’s antibodies, this was also ignored. Saw a different doctor and she has put me on levothyroxine for an underactive thyroid!

I really sympathise. I've had symptoms of iron deficiency without anaemia and it always goes untreated. about ten years ago my hair started falling out and I want to a private consultant and they said that for hair you need levels of 70 (mine was on the border of the NICE guidelines) and I should take an over the counter iron supplement which I did/do. Can you push back at the GP? Fthe 2024 NICE guidelines say ferritin levels should not be below 30 and yours is well below that and your transferrin saturation is also well below the NICE guildenline range. that is true whether or not you're a menstruating woman. I've also had this problem with my thyroid for the last thirty years as I become symptomatic of hypothyroidism at the low end of the normal range (this range in the US would make me officially hypothyroid much earlier). Over the years I've just had to be much more directive at the GP. finally, if you can afford it, and if the GP is useless and won't give you a referral, find a private doctor (preferably one who is a consultant within the NHS as the GPs find these harder to dismiss) get diagnosed there. they then write to your gp and I've found this a very effective way to get proper GP treatment.

Same! Horribly anaemic for 30 years now. GP will put me on the ferrous sulphate. Levels go back up. Great, let's take Stephen'sLass off them. I become ill again. Rinse and repeat.

I have spent my whole adult life being and feeling exhausted.As others have said, yes hair loss and poor nail condition too.

YES ABSOLUTELY buy them from pharmacies! Online or in person. It's been a life saver for me, seeing as the GP doesn't think I'm worthy of getting any sort of help, apparently.

I had regular iron infusions for years.

My ferritin was regularly 2-3. My hgb was always low too.

Infusions take a while to make you feel better. The very obvious point too is that you need to know the underlying cause too.

I had a blood test back in January. My ferritin was 5 and my serum iron below range. The GP marked the results as borderline and suggested I eat spinach. I used my private health insurance to get an iron infusion and the haematologist I spoke to said GPs are woefully ignorant about how ill low ferritin can make you feel.

Follow up blood tests were done last Friday and my ferritin is now 113. The surgery don’t know I had an infusion so I expect the poor deluded GP will think his spinach advice worked!

My DD had results that were just outside the normal range for alkaline phosphate so repeated them which showed them going more outside the normal range, repeated again in six weeks with the same result, then in 12 when they were more outside than when we started. Finally saw a Dr who said no action needed as she looked fine!! Waste of time and money.

OP you have my sympathy.

Don’t get me started! I’ve had a situation where my GP believed they were “just in range” or borderline and my consultant at the hospital said they were abnormal.
The GP didn’t want to action anything yet the hospital were adamant that further action was needed. Apparently they can’t communicate with each other via anything but letter, yet the GP said a letter wasn’t enough to make them take further action. Nothing was done.
Ridiculous.

Did they totly ignore it or did they advise to buy over the counter ferrous fumerate and just refused to do further investigations?

I had low iron all my life at different times of my life when I was menstruating. It stopped after the menopause. I had to medicate at times. This is indeed quite common.

I had a ferritin level of 4, and a serious vit D deficiency. I had a bald patch as a result and was constantly exhausted. High dose iron and vit d supplements fixed both within a couple of months. If doctor won’t prescribe, you can buy both OTC

DD's ferritin is 6 but for some insane reason (possibly because she's under 18?) The lab has that as within the normal range which I'm really not happy about as she's exhausted (but also she won't take her iron...) the same lab definitely doesn't have 6 as normal when I'm tested so must be to do with her age.

Just a general comment - my job involves lab test interpretation and when I was training (granted over ten years ago now) we were taught that reference ranges were designed so that 95% of ‘healthy’ patients would fall in those ranges to allow for statistical variation, meaning around 5% of healthy patients fall outside this.

However, being a patient with low ferritin and thyroid issues myself, I agree with all the PPs about trying to improve your ferritin and pushing for extra tests if you think you need it. My ferritin has been down at 6 with a Hb just about normal. I’ve had to take time off work, absolutely floored. I’m 3 months into treatment and ferritin is now in the normal range (19) but GP wants to carry on until it’s around 70-100. My GP told me that the changes in the normal reference range to 11-300 are reflective of a change in NICE guidelines, but she still treats ferritin under 30 as needs treatment and aims to get to 70-100 (broad rule that i’m sure will be dependent on clinical situation of patient).

That's how it ought to be done. I had iron infusions summer before last which brought my ferritin levels up nicely. Since then I've had blood tests a couple of times for other reasons and after my most recent one I had a phone appointment and while the doctor was happy about the results in regards to the reason for those tests he said he noticed that my ferritin has been dropping (hb fine) and though its still in range he is concerned so ordered coeliac tests (have coeliac disease but blood markers haven't been checked in a few years) and new hb and ferritin tests for May to see if ferritin has continued to drop and if so further investigations need to be done.

I feel so lucky I had that doctor call me instead of the one that originally was supposed to call as I strongly suspect they wouldn't have been as proactive as this doctor.

Had the exact same experience OP, for a decade. Was only prescribed ferrous fumerate when it dropped to 7.

I've spent years and quite a bit of money on expensive iron supplements to get it up to 70. My target is 100.

See also: B12 levels. I also pay for my own high-strength sublingual drops.

Take strong iron + strong vitamin C every other evening with a meal (avoid tea or coffee an hour either side). Request blood test every 6-12 months to monitor, along with keeping a symptom and mood diary/log on an app. Don't give up.

You have an iron deficiency (without anaemia) and you’re right, docs don’t care. I ended up paying for my daughter to have an iron infusion, as the docs didn’t care. She ended up with a blood transfusion at 12 when her first period didn’t stop, as she hasn’t been right since. GP tried to tell me she doesn’t have an iron deficiency, and I told him that yes you can have an iron deficiency without anaemia and that hb is often last thing to drop. Your ferritin is very low. There’s a FB group called the Iron protocol. Nothing we did raised my daughters and we tried for 5yrs. Its ruined her teen years.

Drives me insane, same here. Iron infusion fixed it. Women's ferritin should really be over 100. It doesn't 'dip' '

OP and most PPs, same experience here stretching back over 15+ years and probably more than 20. Continually dismissed with levels just within ranges set very low. It's shocking.

@rwalker low ferritin isn't a problem caused by a brief dip during the menstrual cycle. It is far too easily dismissed as a problem caused by periods.

Well I had a TAH 10 years ago so that wouldn’t be why my ferritin was low!!

I shouldn't say this but I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one being ignored. DH is fed up of finding clumps of my hair on the carpet, I'm exhausted all the time - my ferritin level is 7, I've been taking iron tablets for over 6 months and it's not changed. My g.p says it's fine because my haemoglobin is just about in ok range. It's so frustrating. I hope you can get it sorted OP.

Has he started on iron tablets? Make sure to take them with vitamin C for absorption