Steadily declining haemaglobin - I need more energy

[Choux]

At Christmas I was turned away from giving blood as my haemaglobin was 124. I have been getting annual medicals via my work place and my last 5 haemaglobin results were 141, 137, 127, 128, 125 so something happened to my haemaglobin a few years ago and it has never recovered. I have been falling asleep almost every evening for an hour or two but thought it was just a feature of getting older as I am mid 50s.

i started taking a multivitamin for over 50s with 100% daily iron requirement and just took another test to see the impact of three months of that. My haemaglobin has dropped another point to 123. I got a lot of blood markers checked and some other results which may be linked to energy are:

Iron - 15.3
Ferritin - 75
vit D - 56 (my supplement has 20ug which is 400% of daily needs)
Vit B12 - 54 (my supplement has 10ug which is 400% of daily needs)
Folate - 25

Is it possible I was deficient in B12 until I started the supplement and that has been affecting my haemaglobin? I have read a little about pernicious anaemia.

One other marker which is borderline low is my haematocrit which is the volume my red blood cells take up. This is also linked to anaemia and vit b12 deficiency.

Surely this is something you’d be talking to your GP about?

Here’s the haematocrit write up. Presumably my GP won’t investigate my declining haemaglobin yet as it’s not low enough but my multivitamin isn’t high enough in iron to get it back up.

So I need separate iron on top of my multivitamin? Any recommendations? I am also considering getting a Vit B 12 injection to boost it up to see if that helps my haemaglobin and energy. Does that sound like a good idea?

Why don’t you go to GP and explain your symptoms

I had the blood test done privately so not through the GP and I have read several threads here about GPs not being interested in low iron levels, vit D etc so am not sure if it’s even worth trying to see them if they will just say ‘take more OTC iron supplements’

ok so how about back to basics

book a GP app and go from there

I do blood tests privately and would take them to my doctor if I needed to. You need to work out why your iron levels are dropping. Though I envy you your ferritin!