Iron deficiency or something else.

[Onthehill12345]

A long one here. Since, the beginning of this year I have felt rubbish on and off. I had bloods taken in March - everything was fine except my lymphocytes were a bit low and my ferritin was at 16 - doctor not worried

Fast forward to now. Over the last 10 days, I have been beyond Exhausted!! On top of that, I've had joint pain that moves around my body some days my legs and knees, today my neck, shoulders and arms. I've had headaches and nausea come and go along with mild stomach pains.

I managed to get a doctors appointment for Monday. My questions are:

• are my symptoms in-line with iron deficiency (low iron stores)
• could it be something else?

-should I ask the doctor for specific tests.

Background: female, 36, 2 small children, heavy periods, average BMI, and no underlying health conditions.

A very tired shattered mummy here!

Have you done anything to improve your iron levels since March? A ferritin of 16 is low enough to cause symptoms in my experience. I'm not sure about stomach pains and nausea but exhaustion, aches and headaches definitely featured for me.

It would be good to work on improving your iron stores and also to look at ways of improving your heavy periods if you can. The doctor can prescribe tablets which may help with that.

@Pip1402 yes, I take iron supplements along with vitamin C.

I went to the doctors and they think I have reactive arthritis. I've had bloods taken today, it's a wait and see.

So tired and sore