Hair loss and low ferritin

[WhatHaveYouBecome]

Hi,
I’m wondering whether anyone has been in a similar situation and what the outcome was please.

A few months ago I started to lose a lot of hair and there were noticeable bald patches on my head. I spoke to the GP and had some bloods which showed I was deficient in ferritin, folate and vitamin D and I was told these were probably linked to the hair loss.

I took supplements and had a further blood test. The folate and vitamin D are normal and although the ferritin is, it’s on the low side (20).

My GP is saying that everything is normal, nothing else needs to happen. Only my hair has started falling out again and I’m feeling very tired. I was made to feel like a massive nuisance for questioning why my ferritin is still only 20- told it’s normal but it doesn’t seem right to me that it can still be borderline after taking supplements. I’ve been told it will be diet linked but there wasn’t a single question about my diet and no advice about what I can do to improve things.

I’m wondering if I need to be pushing for more help here. Any advice please?

I’m 33 and generally in good health.

Just for information in France 'normal ferritin 'levels for women range between 5 and 200. I am currently at 8 and have resorted to buying the iron tablets referenced above as my doctor does not want to do anything. Don't quite understand how living in France would impact your ability to cope with lower iron levels but there you go.
I was at 4 about 5 years ago, made it up to 7 on prescribed iron tablets at which point the doctor said she couldn't do any more and not to worry as long as I wasn't too tired....

Can anyone recommend a private ferritin test? Are there any you can do in post like you can for vitamin D? My levels were 20 about 5 years ago and doctors won’t retest because that was “fine”. But I have horrendous migraines after my period, hair loss , chest pains, breathlessness and fibromyalgia symptoms. All put together down to anxiety.

I've recontacted my GP and asked for a second opinion, quoting the NICE guidelines. While not technically valid outside England, in Scotland they are referred to where there aren't any guidelines in place, and are actually used in the evidence base to inform the writing of Scottish guidelines anyway.

cks.nice.org.uk/topics/anaemia-iron-deficiency/

Secretname you could go to a private GP and request a blood test. Or to a private clinic which does iron infusions.

The Cambridge Iron clinic offer testing and infusions

@Secretname123 a poster recommended this on another thread I was watching last year

medichecks.com/products/iron-deficiency-check-blood-test

After being refused full bloods twice by gp (migraine and bed ridden five months, can't see, on max triptans)
I used Forth. Did the hormone test too in case it was my hrt.
It cost £90 after the 10% email sign up discount. You can get ferritin tests on Amazon for £7 but they are just lft tests and give an indicator not a lab result.
Mine was 6 so I got prescription iron but I have bad piles and an anal fissure (have had surgery years ago, never doing it again) after two weeks bed bound with the constipation side effects, fainting 6 times and having to enema daily I got a Gp blood test. It was 11 after three weeks of prescription strength iron so she told me to get Tesco multivits with iron. To avoid the constipation.
I cried.
Felt like she was trolling me because one of my DC work at tesco.

I can only find private iron infusion in London it'll cost me £1450 with the train travel. I can't afford that.If anyone knows anywhere in Yorkshire I will be eternally grateful, googling gets nothing.

Ask for a B12 test. If that’s low there’s likely an underlying reason. I also had low iron for years, the most it’s ever been has been borderline ok and that’s after months of iron tablets. I got diagnosed with crohns a few years ago and the low iron is linked to that, it’s absorbed in the part of my bowel that’s affected. My folate, B12 and vit D were also low. Someone upthread mentioned celiac, also causes all these vitamin deficiencies and easy to test for.

Thanks for this informative thread.

My dd has low ferritin (5) which increased with iron tablets but is now low again.

I did not know about the lack of absorption with whole grains etc.

It seems in trying to improve her diet she may have made things worse.

She does a lot of sports so it needs to be high ideally.

Anyine have any specific advice re very sporty teens?