Ferritin level of 9, GP not concerned, but I feel awful

[cutefluffyunicorn]

I recently had bloods done after contacting GP about experiencing extreme dizziness and fast heart rate when standing up. Bloods were all mostly OK. I'm not anaemic as haemoglobon was fine. Only real abrnomrality was a ferriting level of 9. reference range from the lab was 10-291, so GP described it "borderline" rather than abnormal result. BUT from my own research it suggests that this is actually really low, and you can get symptoms, even without anaemia, when levels are really less than 50.
I am jsut recovering from a severe depressive epsiode , but although my mood is now much better I am expereincing a lot of physical health symptoms inluding lots of dizziness, tiring more easily, overall fatigue, brain fog, thinning hair which just wont grow, palpitations and excessively fast heart rate with any sort of activity (for example vacuuming the lounge the other day sent my HR to 130 and left me breathless and dizzy) I was previously fairly fit, running 5- 10K fairly regularly so I definitely feel something is off.
I did manage to pursuade GP to (reluctantly)prescribe some ferrous sulphate but there are no plans to recheck bloods or follow up at all.

Any expereince of low ferritin without anamia? Did it make you feel awful? What dose of ferrous sulphate (or other) did you take? How long did it take to levels to rise and for you to feel better? Should I push for GP to recheck bloods at some point to see if improved?

Thanks for any advice

Hi OP.
That's not normal. At 16 I was feeling faint and ill.

I took 200mg of ferrous sulphate with 1000mg of vitamin C every second morning on waking. No food or drink apart from water for two hours. I did this every 48hrs. You can't absorb more than this.

You also need to get on top of heavy periods, transexamic acid in the first place and a mirena if you can.

I went from 16 - 71 in four months doing this religiously.

Plus I got my blood test printed from the GP. It had a message from the hospital which said 'non anaemic iron defficiency, investigate cause'. Which my GP then did.

I live in Switzerland. If your ferritin is under 30
here you get an iron infusion via IV at the doctor’s office. 9 is unreal I don’t know how you’re coping.

That's dreadful. I felt like the living dead at that level. Agree with poster above re ferrous fumarate although I take 630mg per day . I know I've read it can't all be absorbed but I don't care, I just want to try and get as much iron on board as possible. I was suffering from iron deficiency anaemia though. You need to find out why, your GP sounds useless. Push further definitely!

That sounds amazing. I had to pay privately for mine in the end followed by a blood transfusion. All private, NHS not interested. My ferritin was 5 at its worse, I couldn't even string a sentence together much less function.

Interesting - mine was 33 and I had it tested as I feel tired and rubbish. Dr said 33 was fine and under 25 was low.

Oo I felt awful at 10, they said I was fine but I really pushed and said I was falling asleep in the day and it was impacting my quality of life and ability to do my job. They reluctantly gave me a months tablets then I pushed each month for 3 months. I also massively upped my iron intake in my diet. It’s still fairly low but not as low, and I do feel better, I think it takes a long time to fix.

I think the range of acceptable differs by country. What is internationally recognised though is that over 70 is ideal and over 100 optimal…

Poor you.

After 15 years of heavy periods, I became anaemic in my early 20s. As a naturally energetic person I couldn't understand why I felt so deeply exhausted. My hb was 110 and my ferritin was 6. My GP started me on iron tablets. I'm really surprised you haven't been offered this.
Can you question it?

Argh sorry I didn't read the full post..

I has the 200mg ferrous sulphate, 2 months supply in the end. Don't remember having any follow up tests but felt better very quickly and never had any problems again.

OP just to say, you can buy it OTC in Boots. You don't need a prescription.

But don't take more than you need in 48hrs.

My iron is now 116 after two years.

Ugh I feel you pain. My ferritin was 3 and the helpful GP said my palpitations and breathlessness were due to me being unfit. Low ferritin wouldn’t cause symptoms according to him!

Are you Irish or Scottish (or of that heritage?) If so, you might be predisposed to haemochromatosis, which means your ferritin levels are generally very high. [Can lead to complications etc. but let's leave that for now.] Anyway, mine are generally high but were "normal" when I was pregnant, which basically meant I was anaemic but the numbers showed I was borderline. So I had to fight for iron supplements, arguing that the numbers were very low FOR ME, and I went from being constantly lethargic/sick/worn out to completely normal when I started taking them.

My iron was 10 and was simply told to eat more red meat and leafy greens. They put me on the mini pill to stop periods and after a year of no bleeding and taking ferrous fumerate every other day I’m up to the grand total of 33. They don’t care.

My hair started thinning after menopause and my result for ferratin was 54. Although it was classed within normal range, my GP said it needed to be around 80 for hair to stop thinning so she prescribed Ferrous Sulphate. I felt sick when taking them but stuck it out for a couple of months. I started taking a multivitamin and biotonin - nails and hair improved after 4 months this or so. I am permanently exhausted (this could be sinus related with me) and breathless when climbing my stairs, but no follow up by my GP. I'm making an appointment to see her again in February.

That is extremely low and when I gave birth my level was just above this - they were monitoring me closely as I'd lost so much blood and said if it dropped any lower I would need a blood transfusion.

That said, I wasn't given any iron supplements after leaving the hospital either! A few years later the effects of low ferritin hit me like a sledgehammer (along with through the floor vitamin D and folate levels and a low B12 level). I felt like I was dying. It took getting all of those up to decent levels to finally start to feel better.

If you are in the East Midland message me to see if you live anywhere near me - I am sure I have a load of boxes or iron supplements somewhere that I no longer need.

Thanks all,
I definitely think it is responsible for me feeling so bad. I was just a bit surpised at how the GP app went. Basically she discussed that ECG was nromal, then said all bloods more or less nromal so she thought the dizziness and inreased heart rate on standing was a POTS type presentation. It was only at the end I asked " my ferritin seemed a bit low, would it be work taking some iron?" and she said, " it was sort of borderline. You could try some iron if you want" and did a prescription. I know I can buy it if needed, so will do that in the future I think. Hoping this resolves things, fingers crossed.

Not in Geneva. Mine was 5 and my doctor didn’t even raise an eyebrow. My sleep doctor did as he linked it to my restless leg syndrome (it was only after the sleep doctor saw the super low numbers that I went back and saw that it had been that low on previous tests my normal doctor had done).

I don't really think low iron/ferritin/folate is taken seriously.

My ferritin on my last test was 4. I struggle to tolerate oral iron.

Finally I've seen a GP who is going to do additional blood tests to see if there is a cause instead of being fobbed off with iron tablets and sent packing.

OP, my coeliac was diagnosed on the basis of symptoms like you describe. My ferritin was 4 and I could barely function. The GP said the most common cause of low ferritin - if you have a generally healthy diet and don't have extremely heavy periods - is malabsorption, and the most common cause of malabsorption is coeliac. She referred me for bloods and an endoscopy and they confirmed that's what it was.
Tbf, though, she was uncommonly excellent and picked up several things in my extended family that other GPs had missed. She's genuinely the thing I miss most about moving away from that area!

I've had ferritin at 7 and I felt bad, start taking ferrous fumerate and you'll feel better.

I am.sorry but you are wrong hemochromatosis is too much iron in your blood, please be careful what false information you spread.

hmm I had wondered about that. My folate was "borderlline" too (4.9) In 2020 I had a really bad rash over my elbows which then spread and it looked very much like dermatitis herpetiformis. Couldnt see GP at that time (COVID) but did eventually have coeliac antibody blood test which was negative. Have had the rasah again 2 or 3 times since then although it does always go away.
I wonder if it is worth asking for testing again?
I have lost a significant amount of weight reccently, but that is slightly complicated by the fact I was experiencing a severe depressive episode with much reduced apetite and eating so it could be due to that either....
I feel I'm being so annoying to the GP (who is lovely) but then again I do feel I have lots of unanswered questions.....

I was off work when mine was 9

I was around 12 from memory and the doctor was like hmm you could have iron tablets maybe if you wanted. Umm yes please! The problem is high doses upset my stomach so I can only take a low OTC one.