Gentle iron supplements or private iron infusion in London?

[Exhausted647382LND]

In short: Can someone please recommend iron supplements that are VERY gentle on the stomach? Or has someone paid for an iron infusion privately somewhere in London?

I'm horribly exhausted (not the sort cured by a good night sleep) and in a lot of pain (PGP, back, hips) since I had my daughter TWO YEARS AGO. I've had blood tests, MRI, X-ray etc recently because of how much agony I am in. Absolutely everything is fine except "slightly" low iron (ferritin of 12) and some inflammation in my pelvis.

GP told me to take iron supplements. I've spent ££ on various ones and they leave me so sick, I actually had to call in sick at work once, which is very unlike me.

I do have a very sensitive stomach after a series of food poisonings and then ulcer in my early 20s.

So I gave up on the iron supplements. But my new physio (I have a new physio helping with my PGP who is brilliant) told me today that low iron can contribute to inflammation and could be part of why my PGP is so bad.

I'm close to a breakdown, I'm so tired. I already know the basics about avoiding dairy and caffeine with iron, eating lots of meat, take iron with vitamin C etc.

Posting in AIBU for traffic as I'm desperate and close to quiting my job, I'm so tired.

@Monetsbridge I’ve had two iron infusions and have absolutely no marks or scarring at all. And of course they work much faster than oral iron, you get a huge dose in one go. My ferritin went from 5 to 113 after my infusion - it would take quite a long time to raise to that level with tablets or liquid iron.

The oral spray from Waitrose is great.

My GP isn't good at all tbh, they totally lost interest after giving the infusion despite my iron levels plummeting again not long after. I've recently had to begin the whole process again and can't even get to see the GP just the nurse practitioner. It's exhausting.

Re: staining, it can do but only if the iron gets on the skin which it shouldn't do if the cannula is placed correctly and isn't knocked/ moved. They did warn me about that and the nurse that did it said she'd only seen it happen once .

It's frustrating, isn't it, how they don't take it seriously. Or in my case, I have to wait til I am feeling much worse, and possibly have unneeded tests, before they'll consider an infusion - I'm almost sure it's low stores from diet in the past, combined with hrt bleeding, and would be fine with oral tablets if I could tolerate them still. But I'll have to wait til levels drop significantly low, then probably still will be rejected for an infusion, as it's not gastro related or anything. They still mark all the tests as satisfactory, as long as it's within the lab ranges (which are pretty low). I can at least see the GP rather than the nurse, as I'm seeing them for other reasons, but the iron conversation is just a bit tacked on at the end, only when I bring it up, and then get told to get somw tablets, they don't prescribe them any more.