Can iron tablets cause diarrhoea?

[OwlInBatter]

Ive been taking prescribed ferrous fumerate for over a month now. 210mg a day

I've recently been suffering with an upset stomach. It's on and off and not daily but sometimes it's a couple of times a day, then nothing for a week, then it's back again for a few days. I've had stomach cramps on and off - but again, not daily.

It'll come on when I've eaten as a rule - and something normal, not out the ordinary. And my stomach will churn and I'm dashing to the loo again.

Suddenly occurred to me it could be the iron tablets although I believed they mainly caused the opposite issue.

Anyone taken them and had this as a side effect?

Ummm usually get the opposite with iron pills, and can’t poo!!

@OnceuponaRainbow18

Ummm usually get the opposite with iron pills, and can’t poo!!

Apparently it’s one or the other 😫 they make me constipated too.

Definitely. They give me awful guts. Pain, diarrhoea etc.

Alternatively though, do you have a bowel condition causing low iron?

@DrCoconut not to my knowledge. The low iron is down to being vegetarian and - more crucially - very heavy periods in peri menopause. I'm currently taking tranexamic acid to slow the flow down but only started last month so have to give that time

They do that to me!

I take 210mg ferrous fumerate once daily for lupus related anaemia and they do give me a bit of an upset stomach. I need to take them though so take the odd Cocodamol to offset it. I can usually tell if I’m going to have a bout of it because I get stomach cramps early morning ish. The Codeine works to bung me up a bit!!

As a side note if you have heavy periods try the mini pill / Cezarette. I had the same issues and take that and have done so now for 9 years and I have no bleeding / periods whatsoever (after the initial couple of months of spotting). I take it alongside HRT - mini pill everyday, utrogestan 100mg every night and oestrogel.

When my iron is very low I can take 3 of the ferrous fumarate tablets a day and I will have no reaction. As my iron levels start to come up to normal levels I have to decrease the iron tablets otherwise I get dreadful diarrhoea, usually I get the diarrhoea first then I know to cut back on the iron tablets.

@Phillipa12 that's interesting because I started suffering after a few months on them. But the cause of my deficiency was untreated coeliac disease (I had to wait ages for my endoscopy on a gluten containing diet). So I didn't realise the diarrhoea was an issue at first. It was after I went gluten free I noticed the link between the tablets and additional gut issues and it got worse as my iron levels went up. I don't take tablets now and will be interested to see how my levels are. I feel like they are not great but my bowel issues are solved.

Yup!!!

Try eating before you take the tablets, to line the stomach and take with a glass of orange juice to help absorption.

Interesting… I had the same with tranaexemic acid, but always put it down to the low iron and stress.