Iron supplements

[throwaway100000]

Currently on 3x daily 210mg ferrous fumarate (due to low ferritin) and really struggling with the side effects! I feel bloated, have on/off bowel issues and sometimes get cramps is there anything I can do to ease the side effects?

Sorry, I should have said that I take the tablet with orange juice most of the time, and have already experimented with taking them on an empty stomach/after eating to no avail !

Whenever I have bowel issues e.g. diarrhoea on iron tablets, I cut the amount due to one just before bed until it settles then build back up to 3 again.

Unless you are unlucky you will only be on them for a couple of months so it's a case of getting on with unfortunately.

I could never tolerate tablets. Constipation leading to issues with piles and horrible stomach ache.

Spatone worked for me. It is pretty low dose so many say it can't work. I took 4 sachets a day to start with which is pretty expensive but things improved quite quickly. I now take 2 sachets a day and it works for me. Still not cheap and you won't get it prescribed but worth it to me. I take it in a vitamin c effervescent drink.

I think it works because it makes a pleasant drink, so I don't struggle to take it. It is (they say) more available and therefore a bigger proportion is actually absorbed.

Spatone isn't the answer if someone has really low iron stores, but if they're borderline it might help. I tried it when I was anaemic, and had low ferritin, and while my haemoglobin level improved slightly over the 3 months between blood tests (on 2 sachets of spatone per day) my ferritin didn't. It wasn't anywhere near enough to even start to replenish depleted stores.

Ferrous fumarate tablets (300mg in my case) twice a day, worked well for me, but they can be harsh on the stomach. Each tablet has about 100mg elemental iron and if you only absorb 10% of that (which I'm sure is less than I was told by my Dr., but lets just go by Spatone's figures for this calculation for the sake of argument) then that's 10mg per tablet, so 20mg per day in total. That equates to what you'll absorb from 10 Spatone sachets. That's a bit too pricey an option for me! I imagine that taking 4 sachets a day would actually make a difference to stores, but it'd obviously take a bit longer (many months) and cost you a bomb!

Missed the important bit. I totally agree with RedMarauder. Taking just one tablet a day, if your stomach can tolerate that, is a good option. I'd try that if I were you.

Thanks for all the great advice!

I should have said that I have chronic low ferritin due to my diet - I’m vegan and haven’t been able to sustain high enough ferritin without taking supplements. (I have been on these before under GP’s guidance and within a year my iron stores were depleted, so I have been prescribed them again). I’m not sure whether I’ll be on these for a few months or if I’ll have to eg take 1 a day forever.

I also don’t have periods due to my contraception so bleeding is not an issue.

Also make sure you don’t have tea/coffee/calcium rich stuff an hour+ before or after to maximise absorption. Almond milk is fortified with calcium, for instance, so read labels carefully. Gradual build up also helps your tummy get used to it. If I miss a few days going back on it is grim.

I take mine first thing with a vit c tablet and only drink water (no food) until mid morning (hot water instead of tea, plus cold water like normal).