Low ferritin? What are your symptoms?

[WhatAFoolishFool]

I’m interested to know what your ferritin level is and what your symptoms are?

At last check mine was 27, I have tingling in my legs and ectopic heartbeats have started the last few days. Headaches.

wondering if it’s linked.

Air hunger
palpitations
bone crushing exhaustion
dizziness
Thin hair
The need to crunch fruit ice lollies over and over each night!

Th ice lolly thing stopped when I got to a level of around 23.
I’m up at 34 and still have most of the other symptoms daily tbh.

My tingling (legs, fingers, face) was down to B12 deficiency.

I was diagnosed with folate deficiency (can’t remember what my ferritin level was). I was exhausted and would spend most weekends asleep, suffered with low mood and had the odd heart flutter. Folic acid has sorted things out.

Do any of you take any supplements which may stop a recurrence?

At 3.5 my hair was coming out in clumps, exhausted, constant head aches, breathless and very low mood.

Turned out I had Coeliacs! Had it retested last week with my TTG levels and I'm back up to 36. Hair is sprouting, still fairly tired but I have more overall energy.

Mine was 17 and I felt totally fine tbh.

Just above 30. I posted a thread on much the same thing on Monday night - might be worth scrolling on this topic to find it as it had some useful tips.

hair loss - diffuse and on the crown, but also arm hair and pubic hair.
freezing hands and feet
whooshing / heartbeat noises I can hear
fatigue which is inexplicable - ie after a good nights sleep
anxiety

i’ve read that to have hair regrow you need a ferritin level of 70, which can take a long time.

standard NHS practice seems to be to offer 200mg of ferrous sulphate which not everyone can tolerate or absorb. I can’t take it - it played havoc with my stomach.

i am trying an extra strength vitamin D, plus a multivitamin with an extra 14mg of iron in. Then a separate 28mg of iron bisclygate (sp) which is the most absorbable form of iron you can have. I am taking that on am empty stomach with orange juice and no other food/drink for 2 hours either side (bedtime basically). I am also changing diet where I can to have more leafy greens, dried apricots and fortified breakfast cereals, and repeating the bloods in 12 weeks to see if that’s made a difference.

14 I think at lowest..I got ridiculously out of breath walking up stairs, v tired, hair falling out, very cold hands and feet and low mood.
Sometimes palpitations. It was the out of breath thing that made me go to doctors,
It was ridiculous.

I literally couldn’t get up in the morning when my ferritin was low - sorry, don’t know what the levels were. No sleep was enough. Terrible brain fog. Felt SO much better after a couple of weeks of supplements.

I have struggled with low ferritin for all my adult life.
Its a bit better now I dont have periods.
This was suggested to me as very effective, about to order some
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Patch-Aid-Simply-Iron-bioavailable/dp/B099XB3JC6/

I was just about to start a thread asking exactly this! I have had a collection of symptoms-
hair falls out
crushing tiredness but not sleepiness, it’s different to that
anxiety
palpitations
breathlessness
cold
hungry
Feel exhausted even when I wake up

they’ve not considered ferritin deficiency before, but my thyroid has now come back normal. My ferritin level has dropped from 90 to 35 in a year, so now they want to investigate that.

My lowest was 2; I was hallucinating, not sleeping, hair coming out in clumps, could only eat ice and ice lollies - lemon flavoured ones! I was very, very unwell. Falling asleep in the middle of sentences, whilst standing up..... awful. It took 5 weeks of that before the GP & hospital got their arses in gear and got me a series of infusions. Also - I was pregnant!! (Can't take iron orally due to having IBD).

Mine fell super low when I was pregnant.

Felt like I had the most awful jet lag.

My ferritin was 14. The doctor said normal is 15 so I’m only very slightly anaemic, not enough to cause symptoms. I have burning pain and twitching but apparently this is not related to low iron. Also my HBA1C result is too high, that may be due to anaemia.

Mine is 6.6. I feel extremely tired. Feel low most days most of the time. I have B12 deficiency as well.

GP doesn't recommend another blood test for 3-4 months.

6.6 is very low. You should chase this daily. If it drops to 2 or 3 you will feel extremely unwell.

I dipped to 6 twice, but with supplements climbed quickly to 20. When low, I had no appetite, was freezing, zombie state on the sofa - couldn’t be arsed to go anywhere else but bed. Permanently weary and gasping for air. Horrible state to be in and never really got to the bottom of why I dipped as I only had a tiny fibroid and one horrifically long period. Second time I dipped down, I wasn’t even bleeding. Now on hrt and feeling well.

I can't remember the numbers but my iron was super high and my ferritin was super low. My new GP said to ignore the ferritin number and to stop supplementing iron in case I overdosed.

Was having palpitations and air hunger, there were other symptoms but I ended up in urgent care a couple of times over it.

Solved it myself by taking liquid iron and B vits. And keeping protein / iron foods high and sugar low.

Definitely get checked for Coeliac disease. My daughter had no bowel symptoms. Low iron was her main symptom.
It’s a whole body autoimmune disease. Headaches are also not uncommon and the tingling could be gluten neuropathy.

https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/your-gluten-free-hub/home-of-gluten-free-recipes/healthy-eating/iron/

I also have a gene beta thallesmia ( don't know how to spell it) trait that doesn't allow full absorption of iron.

I always had low iron levels. But since after pregnancy it's become worse.

@Blomh
GP’s are very good at saying your results are ‘normal’ or satisfactory if they are close to the labs normal reference range, but I’m sure Nice guidelines say to treat if under 30.

@ThursdayTomorrow thank you. I’m already gluten free, have been for 3 years. I’m not coeliac (negative blood test) but I am intolerant.

I have a long history of tingling (and wondered if I have gluten neuropathy before I went GF), been under endocrine and neurology for it. No cause found. However a couple of years ago I managed to get my ferritin up to 70 and I’m pretty sure the tingling stopped. Not sure if it was due to the ferritin or something else but my last test it’s dropped below 30 again but that was back in September so I don’t know what it would be now as I do menstruate. Not heavy but even so. I have an excellent diet with red meat, eggs, pulses, green leafy veg etc but it’s not enough to maintain my levels.

although not super low, I have read that anything below 70 - 100 can make you symptomatic. I know I’m not anaemic and I haven’t got the exhaustion / hair falling out but I do think it’s linked. I started supplements yesterday and will monitor my levels myself with private blood tests.

@LightenUpTheRideIsShort that’s right, they do. But my lab has a range that doesn’t flag as abnormal unless below 15, so the GPs just ignore it! Luckily I always check my results myself

I saw my GP today and he told me latest blood results indicate low ferritin (22ug/L) and less than ideal VitD (40 nmol/L).

I've been having headaches for a couple of weeks now, and also some tingles in my feet/hands. Wondering if the iron supplement will clear this up?! Hope so, then I can cross them off my list of health grumbles.

I got a blood test recently. Mine is 4ng/ml. I have headaches, exhaustion, low mood and just feel very unwell. I was told to take a iron supplement.

My ferritin is 16 but absolutely everything else is normal (like @Fliopen I think). I am 45, I developed IBS a year ago, possibly triggered by an acute stress episode and time off work. I lose a little bit of hair in the shower but not clumps or handfuls, just a few strands at particular times of the month. I'm a bit tired but not excessively, I do plenty of exercise and eat a mixed diet and feel like I sleep well - 8h a night, no insomnia.

I've twice been in a&e in the past year on a drip and pain relief with attacks of diverticulitis. My lovely GP has ruled out excessive periods as the cause of the low ferritin, I have had a normal gynae ultrasound, my b12 is fine, I'm not anaemic (although I was in the summer after I had given blood early in the year, recovered my Hb using spatone). I have a very slightly raised IgA so lovely GP has referred me for more coeliac related tests through the gastroenterology department. I've no idea when that referral will come through!

Mine was 11 at recent test and 1 point of anaemic. Have no obvious symptoms. Feel very energised, etc.
i think it was caused by being on ppi and then doing a v restricted diet for 3 weeks. I’m off ppi, eating better and took some iron tabs, but I find them hard to tolerate so have stopped them now.