Anaemia, periods, anxiety

[AgentCooper]

I feel at my wits' end. About 2 months ago, I was diagnosed with iron deficiency anaemia and have been taking ferrous sulphate ever since. I had no idea I was anaemic - went to the doc's as I'd had a massive relapse in anxiety and was finding the physical symptoms (shaking, extremes of hot and cold, nausea and vomiting) very hard to cope with. I hadn't had a relapse in a long time and honestly thought I was getting better - there was no real trigger.

Not long after starting on iron, I began to feel better - less anxious, sleeping better, no sickness, appetite returned, less tired and dizzy. Just last week I had a light period - enough to cause tummy pain but not much blood. Since then, I've been feeling anxious, restless, sick, and this morning I woke up at 4:30

The GP thinks the aneamia was set off by a massive, haemorrhaging period I had back in January and I was basically getting weaker. My periods have been light and infrequent since then but this one last week was the first I've had since starting on iron. Could it be what's caused my setback? Any thoughts would be so much appreciated. I'm going on holiday in a few weeks and really thought I was making progress. If you feel rotten after your period, do you start to feel better again?

Don't worry, Equiem, I'm sure you won't end up in the Mail

To put something in bold, you just put an asterisk on either side, like this - took me a while to figure that out myself!

Has anyone whose periods pretty much stopped with anaemia had them return since they started on iron? I'm bleeding today

I'm not sure how a neurologist is going to help with low iron levels?

The cameras are to look for internal bleeding causing the iron loss. They may have been checking for Coeliac too as it's a common cause of iron deficiency. Have you been checked for it?

Have you been checked for pernicious anaemia? Which is actually a vit B12 deficiency.

Exactly Yseulte my GP refuses to believe it's the iron issues which is causing all my problems. Hence why he sent me to the ME clinic and now a neurologist.
My father is a coeliac so I know quite a bit about it. I've had the blood test which came back fine but I know you can get false negatives. They won't refer me cameras because the blood test was fine.
My b12 is fine, as is my vitamin d.
Something is causing me to lose iron!
I'll just be glad when I get my referral to the neurologist because it will mean I'm past the GP and seeing a Consultant

The only way you can truly test for Coeliac is a biopsy.

You can have a false negative blood test result if a) you weren't eating enough wheat at the time of the test or b) you are iga deficient. You would need to have your total serum iga tested to establish that.

As your dad is Coeliac, I'd want to thorougly rule that out first. (Though I've no idea if there's any genetic link).

And change your GP.

I also have PCOS but not very symptomatic. It was only discovered because they thought I had endometriosis. Apparently PCOS is passed through the male line and is linked to coeliac disease. So it would make sense if I was a coeliac. I don't eat much gluten, probably pasta once or twice a week and I don't like sandwiches but it's all the hidden gluten in crisps etc. My dad is very ok with small bit of gluten unlike some people.
When we questioned this with the GP he said that because I'm not deficient in anything then there is no absorbtion problem bangsheadagainstwall
I will be I've had enough. He told me to stop stressing over my hair loss cos that will make more fall out

I really hope you get a resolution soon, Equiem, you deserve it. We all deserve to have our concerns heard and taken seriously.

I'm a wee bit better over the weekend but still absolutely wiped out and mind racing. I keep telling myself that my body's physically not well and so it doesn't have the strength right now to reason with my anxious brain, but it's hard. Got a proper period the other day, after a wee bleed last week, and I think it's really floored me. I'm taking 3 x tablets a day but took 4 yesterday to try to compensate for this blood loss a bit. Just hoping and praying things pick up, trying to ride it out.

I have PCOS too but totally asymptomatic - skinny, heavy periods, no extra hair, what prompted me to get tested was cysts on my chin that suddenly appeared.Turns out my blood sugar is a bit high too. Diabetes and Coeliac often go together.

I've read bits of research into an autoimmune element to PCOS, no conclusion, but I think it's an interesting idea.