Iron tablets side effects

[unhingedtoday]

My husband is taking iron tablets as he is anaemic. He has tried all sorts of different ones but they all made him feel ill. He is now on ferrous glutamate (s?) and they seem to suit him ok.
He still does get some of the side effects, but very sporadically.
He took them last night and had a really bad nights sleep, nightmares, tummy felt off and was just very unsettled. He is sure it's the iron tablets that cause this but it seems a little weird to me that some nights he can be totally fine with them and other nights not.
Has anyone any experience of this? Is it normal to feel the effects only occasionally?

I've been anaemic so I regularly take iron tablets and never had any side effects. I doubt the iron tablet would be causing bad sleep and nightmares. But if you are worried, then make sure he doesn't take them before bed. He should take them first thing in the morning with breakfast.

My DP takes many multivitamins for weightlifting and if he doesn't eat with them, he gets a 'funny feeling in his stomach.

Doctors seem to have a mental block about the fact that oral iron is terribly hard on the stomach and gut and many, many people experience side effects when taking it, even if they have the supposedly more gentle tablets like ferrous gluconate.

If he needs it, he might be better off looking at Cytoplan's iron preparations, which are the only ones I can take , but really someone ought to be looking at why he is anaemic and fixing the root cause.

I take ferrous fumarate three times a day on an empty stomach (first thing in the morning, as well as last thing at night, plus 1 hour before lunch).

I take the ferrous fumarate with a vitamin C chewable 200mg tablet, and 1000mg lysine, to aid absorption. Have not suffered like I used to when I was taking ferrous sulfate.

I have also upped my fiber intake (dried apricots and wholemeal everything) to avoid constipation.

Thanks.
We know why he is anaemic, he had an operation to cure the issue (piles) a couple of weeks ago, but because his iron level was so low (they nearly didn't operate) it's going to take him a while to build neck up.

• back up, not neck up!

I was prescribed them in pregnancy for borderline anaemia. had sleepless nights and didn't crap for 2 weeks! asked to come off them and had 24 hours if the most horrific stomach pain and then spent the next day on the toilet!

appreciate they aare necessary for some but the side effects were a nightmare!