Dr told me Iron deficiency DOESNT cause fatigue?

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I thought this was out dated. I understand the logic... haemoglobin carries oxygen around your body and Iron deficiency causes anaemia, and THAT is what makes you tired. so unless anaemia is present, there is no 'pathway' for fatigue

I thought that iron had other roles in the body, whereby a deficiency could cause fatigue, anxiety, depression??

and LOTS of people report feeling fatigue with low iron, when there isn't anaemia

Op, I feel your pain. I had a ferritin of 15 and symptoms which could be attributed to it-dizziness, brain fog, migraines, shortness of breath-yet the GP insisted that I didn’t need iron tablets as not anaemic. I’ve been doubling up the dose of over the counter iron and have got it up to 26.
I looked at so much stuff on the internet and there is conflicting advice about low iron without anaemia and in my area they won’t investigate further. I did however have a blood test for coeliac which was negative.

the idea that you took supplements and only got to 26, makes me cry

I would love to see a study of healthy feeling women and know what their iron levels are. like are women walking round with levels that low and just feeling normal?

I was diagnosed as anaemic recently and put on ferrous fumerate in response to low heamo/ferratin count. I felt shattered all the time - sleeping but without feeling rested. Almost hangover-ish. Put it down to training for a marathon and life events but doc confirmed it was diet related (I don’t eat meat). Your doc is being daft imo

My ferritin was at 10 with a similar set of symptoms but not anaemia according to GP so it’s apparently fine. I also had very low B12 and Vit D so GP prescribed high doses of both to get that sorted but nothing for the iron. I feel less like a zombie after nearly a year of supplementing. I still don’t feel well but I can’t face going back to GP to be largely dismissed.
I think the mid life hormone and vitamin profile of mid life females is so complicated and there is no service that really has the time or capacity to think about what is needed in the round to help. It’s frustrating.

Check out Chris Masterjohn for info on iron, ferritin and the other elements of the iron pathways. He has an incredible knowledge of it (probably because he has haemochromatosis). He's a PhD in nutritional science.

You could look into supplementing with Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) as that is involved in iron metabolism and could help raise your ferritin level.

I had muscle fatigue, shortness of breath and just felt like I had nothing in the tank. I wasn't 'tired' though ie I didn't want to sleep more so maybe that's what they meant

First symptom listed in a study on non-anaemic iron deficiency is fatigue
"Iron deficiency without anaemia has been associated with:

1. weakness, fatigue, reduced exercise performance, difficulty in concentrating, and poor work productivity5"

My ferritin was at 4 and I was absolutely shattered, but I was anaemic as well (haemoglobin at 80). I'm just glad I got a decent doctor who agreed to give me iron infusions - two infusions later and I feel much better.

Well that's wrong. One of the causes of non-anaemic iron deficiency listed on patient.info article for doctors is coeliac disease! I would print it off and go back and demand coeliac testing.
https://patient.info/doctor/non-anaemic-iron-deficiency

But surely when your GP tells you that something neat and tidy with an easy fix doesn't fix your symptoms, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It isn't invalidating your symptoms, just saying that even with iron supplements there is something else going on that needs to be investigated.

I think recently there has been a more nuanced approach to fatigue, particularly after long covid. There are different ways to feel completely exhausted and to differentiate can only be a good thing in getting to the bottom of it.

What is the plan to find out what is going on - can you focus on your symptoms when you go to the doctor instead of telling her what you think is causing them?