Tiredness worries

[Cheeseycheeseycheesecheese]

Hi everyone,

Just looking for a little bit of advice or to find out of anyone else is suffering from a similar level of tiredness.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been feeling randomly tired. Like I'll be doing something and all of a sudden I'm hit by a wall of exhaustion and my eyes are uber heavy and I just want to put my head down and have a nap.

I'm on 300mg of iron for borderline amenia, the practice nurse prescribed it for every other day as a reduction of intake as my levels increased after 3 months taking it daily. However I've increased that to daily again, I've also started taking vitamin d tablets again, as last time I felt like this vit d and iron were 2 of a number of things wrong. But my last set of bloods in February however showed just iron levels were low.

Also I had the copper coil fitted in December, and have had reverse periods as in 3 weeks bleeding and 1 week off (the 3 weeks start as a week of spotting, followed by a week of bloody discharge/snot like mucus and finally a 3rd week of 7 solid days bleeding, I doubling up tampons and towels as I'm flooding) when I had my daughter, my cycle settled back to relative normal, so I was hoping the same would happen again.

When I had my 6 week check up after having my coil fitted I told the practice nurse about the bleeding, this prompted the blood tests, but she said it could just be my body getting used to the coil and my body returning to cycle as I had my first possible period in November since having ds. She did say if it's the same for March and April to go back. I was going to have it taken out Friday, appointment booked, but practice canceled due to a confirmed covid case in the team. So it's being rescheduled.

Today I realised my last bleed finished almost 2 weeks ago and thought maybe, my body had settled? However when I've pee'd today I've had a cramping sensation in my lower stomach, close to my groin. Google is suggesting a UTI however I've not got any of the other symptoms, does anyone have any suggestions?

Sorry reading that back its a bit of a ramble and diverts entirely away from the tiredness, but could it all be related?

No one?

Did you have very heavy bleeding before the coil? Was the coil fitted as purely contraception or to try to fix some other period related problems?

No, my periods have always been your stereotypical 3/4 day bleed, change sanitary product every 4-6 hours.

My son was born in July and November is whenI had what was suspected to be my first proper period after the birth, but that was literally a 5 day bleed and it was over.

The coil was simply fitted as contraception.

I have suffered for long term fatigue. Lots of blood tests and I was anemic but not now. I was referred to a dermatologist after I started loosing hair when my dd turned 2. The consultant said a irin level that is just in range only mean your not dead . It doesn't mean you have spare iron to make luxuries like hair. So that's one thing. Ok irons levels arent enough.

I suspect I have sleep apnea but for the last two years my gp practice wastryi g to exhaust all other options first and I was prescribed exercise,, but didnt start due to lockdown.

Try at least 30 minutes of brisk cardio a day ( challenging walk) I find that starting off on walk kills me, literally mentally and physically, but in the evening I do feel less tired.

I feel asleep in soft play last year when my dd was 4. I literally closed my eyes to stretch my arms above my head and felt myself falling.

I had a full blood test. Glucose was also high so ask for a full blood panel, sugar, cholesterol, thyroid and keep going with iron and throw in some exercise that makes you out of breath.

@lego that sounds horrible!! Hair loss was part of the reason for the original blood tests when ds was 4 months old.

Thank you for the suggestion but I'm not sure exercise will make any difference as before lockdown I weight trained 4 days a week and ran 5 miles twice a week, and currently am doing about 2 hours of walking most days. Possibly not brisk enough though (I take dcs for a walk to get out the house as dh is working from home and they can be a loud pair) my average is about 4mph according to my fitness tracker that is pushing a buggy with a wheely board on the back for dd to stand on when she's tired. But thank you, I'll look at increasing my pace to increase my heart rate.

Ah - I see your not a lazy as me then! It might be mostly iron related then. It takes ages to build iron back up and once it's a good level imo you dont stop taking supplements. I have found it dips low again very quickly.

My mum has just been told she is anemic. I told her that I took iron and vit D supplements but after that course finished i now take a prenatal every other day or so. Prenatal vitamins seem to give me no side effects like the iron tablets.

Not sure how the iron levels compare but its another idea to get iron in. The consultant did say that all the time you have periods you are constantly loosing iron so there could be a long time to build reserves up to good level ( not to just go out of the anemic zone as that's not enough to function and gives you no buffer )

I didn't know that about reserves, I assumed when the nurse practitioner reduced my intake to eod from daily she was looking to take me off it completely, but maybe not from what you've said. That's really helpful so thank you 😁