AIBU to ask for help trying to understand my blood test results

[TerrazzoChips]

Apologies for posting here but my midwife (who is usually great) has text me blood test results only saying they are ‘lowish’ while my GP has said I’m anaemic and I am trying to work out how low.

I’m 30 weeks pregnant and my HB is 99 and my ferritin is 12. Looking online there seem to be all sorts of measures and I can’t work out what mine mean!

Yes those are low. Not horrendous, needing blood transfusion low, but enough to make you feel tired/run down and enough to need treatment.

Hb should be 120 for a woman

In the third trimester of pregnancy you do get normal haemodilution so 10.5 (or 105 depending on the scale you are using) is normal - however while a level of 99 I would expect to treat in terms of oral iron supplementation it's not horrendously low and I wouldn't expect a transfusion to be considered (or even to make you consultant led care unless there were other reasons

Ferritin are your stores and ideally should be over 15, so again lower than normal but not too bad and will come up (in the majority of cases) with oral supplementation

Both the midwife and the GP have said the same thing in different words - you have a mild anaemia (ie your hb is lowish)

Thank you! Googling seems to bring up the scale Iolaus is referring to as I kept seeing 12,14 etc so the 99 made no sense!

At your gestation we would expect a HB of at least 105. Therefore your Hb is low and you are classed as anaemic. It should be easily treated with oral iron though.

A non pregnant woman’s Hb should be at least 120 so I think sometimes GPs base results on that and so 99 would seem very low.