Slightly raised platelets. Should I be worried?

[Fajitasallday]

Hi,

So I've been having some abdominal pain (lower right) on and off for months, maybe a year and am finally having investigations. I have incredibly heavy periods, which cause anemia if I don't take iron tablets, which I obviously am!

I take the lowest possible dose which keeps it in my system, but prevents nasty iron side effects. I have been feeling tired and achy again, like I did before taking the supplements years ago, so almost hoped that my blood test results would just show that I needed to top up my iron a little, but it didn't. Apparently my hemoglobin was fine, but my platelets were just outside normal. Think it was 425. The receptionist said that it had a note next to the raised marker saying "no further action". Normally that would obviously put my mind at rest, but I have a scan booked in for the abdominal pain, so I'm wondering if they've said no further action because I'm having a scan. Or would they still want to repeat the test anyway if it was raised to a concerning level?

I have really bad anxiety, as is probably evident so I'm massively worrying about this.

TIA

Bump

Normal platelet range is between 150-450. Yours are in normal range and nothing to worry about.

@Spudina, I hope so, but I just don't understand why it was flagged as a marker in the first place.

If I was feeling well I wouldn't be worrying so much.

Try not to to worry OP. I think maybe you are remembering the number wrong, as it must be above 450 to flag as being high. Platelets can react to things like infections, go up for a while and then go down. In your shoes I would ask for a repeat in a few weeks, by which time they will probably be normal. There is an illness called ET where people make more platelets than is normal. If they remain too high there is a risk as they make the blood more vicious. (Theoretically there is a risk of a blood clot forming) So if they remain high a referral to a Haematologist would be made by your GP. But the more likely scenario is that next time it will be normal.

I think they’ve changed the goal post fairly recently. The norm was 150-450 now it’s 150-400 so anything above would flag up but as GP put no further action, I wouldn’t worry. I’ve had 450, repeated it’s still around that, had further blood tests but all OK. I had it before and it was low ferritin causing it, but this time that seems to be within range. I wouldn’t worry about essential ET because the number would be well off range.

@Bohemian18 you’re totally right. Ignore my posts OP, just remembered the range did change recently. Your platelet count is nothing to worry about.

@Spudina and @Bohemian18, thank you.

I'm not entirely sure I have got the number right now. As soon as she said it had been flagged up as slightly raised, my mind went to mush. It could be higher.

I actually thought she said the norm was between 300 - 380, but maybe she meant average. Or maybe, as I say, I've got it all completely wrong!

Still confused as to why it was flagged, but the doctor doesn't want to investigate further.