low ferritin levels

[happygilmore]

Apparently my ferritin levels are 9, they were 17 three months ago but I think (not seen them to check) my hb levels are normal. This is despite taking iron tabs, but I did finish them a couple of weeks ago. Guessing I need to restart them!

I have very heavy periods so think this is probably the cause, I did have a major PPH after I had a baby 8 months ago, but was told that my levels were sorted after tablets and a transfusion, so not sure if that will have any impact.

I'm feeling dreadful, I probably have another condition (under the care of a consultant for that) but wonder if this isn't helping as I've felt a lot worse recently. Does it sound like it could be due to heavy periods and will iron tablets work - they haven't seem to so far!!

It might be the periods.

But 9 isn't that bad. The normal reference range is 6-80. 9 is still normal range.

Mine was 6 last year so it was at the very bottom end of normal. I had iron tablets for a little while which didn't do that muhc and my GP said it wasn't that bad.

Are you sure that's the normal range? Just google says anything less than 15 is low, and 10 should be treated.

www.cks.nhs.uk/anaemia_iron_deficiency/making_a_diagnosis/diagnosis/investigations/interpreting_ferritin_levels

6 sounds really low!

My GP gave me copies of my blood tests from the hospital pharmacy and it clearly says on the results reference range 6-80 for a pre-menopausal woman. I have the results in front of me as I type. My reading of 6 was classed as normal based on that.

You might be looking at the readings for men or for post menopausal women. The normal reference range for post-menopausal women is 15-190.

In any event I had ferritin that was 6, MCV was too low, so was my haemoglobin count but I was ok and I'm alive and kicking now. I didn't take iron for all that long either. My ferritin went up to 8, my MCv went up a little bit and so did my haemoglobin. But my GP said I didn't need iron anymore, just do it via diet.

I wouldn't worry too much, you aren't about to drop dead.

How are you taking the iron tablets? If you take them with food it reduces the efficiency of them.Take them on an empty stomach with a glass of orange juice which will help the iron absorb better.

Oh I'm not worried really about this, I've had some other quite big health problems for months and I suppose I was hoping sorting this might be the answer! That's another story though.

I do take the tablets with orange juice but I'm guessing it's because my periods are so heavy.

Incidentally it's odd the pharmacy at your hospital has those cut offs as it definitely isn't the normal NHS accepted guidelines - my link shows the generally accepted cut off for women of childbearing age (below 15).

I meant hosptial laboratory not pharmancy ...d'oh!

Guidelines depend on where you look and vry between labs: GP note book says otherwise. here This corresonds with my hosptial labs, etc and my own GP told me I was not anaemic with those levels but on the line.

With my ferritin at 6 I was in no danger of dropping dead and had virtually no symptoms. It was picked up during tests for something else.

I'm treading cautiously here as I am not wishing to contradict A1980. After the birth of my third LO last year my GP ran some blood tests after my 6 week check up as I had lost a lot of blood after birth and was breastfeeding. Although I was not anemic (it was too soon after the blood loss for that) my ferritin levels were 5 and I was told this was below the normal range of 8 - 80 (this is in France). I must confess that I was pretty tired with it. The iron (which I hate taking - I prefer Floradix but there's not enough iron in that for such low levels) kicked in after 4 weeks. Good luck with everything.

IIRC ferritin levels take ages to rise once you start on iron tablets, as the iron in your blood (think that's haemoglobin?) is topped up first till it's at normal levels and then when you have some to spare it's stored as ferritin (or I may be completely wrong but having been through years of treatment for this, that was my impression!)

Jardins contradict me all you like, I wont take offence, it's a free country

As I said earlier, it depends where you look. Weirdly different labs have different reference ranges so some will list it higher.

5-6 is pretty low for iron reserves, it's as low as it can be and on the bottom end of normal on some scales. But I seemed ok and wasn't that unwell.

Iron tabelts do take a while I was on them for three months and it only went up to 8.