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Original poster

Low iron/ ferritin- so lost!

82 replies

Lockdownbaby2021 · 30/09/2025 21:04

posted last year about my serum ferritin being 12 and the drs saying it was normal. I pushed for iron tablets prescribing which they did but they made me feel awful, dizzy, sick, stomach pains!!!

Fast forward to this year, at the drs crying as i'm feeling so low, tired, brain fog, palpitations and struggling to put on weight despite eating loads. My periods are heavier than normal too.

she repeated my iron levels and my ferritin came back 17... yes only 5 marks up from the last one😫

She suggested i take a supplement, which I had been doing anyway! so no help at all. She also prescribed something to make my period lighter but i'm reluctant to interfere with nature and not heard much about this medication!

I ended up buying some nutrition geek iron supplements online and taking them with orange juice but I feel like I'm getting worse.

I've bought some spartone liquid sachets but they taste disgusting!!!!

I just want everyone to give me their magic ways of increasing iron... fast!!

OP posts:
Original poster
Lockdownbaby2021 · 24/10/2025 22:50

6comma7 · 23/10/2025 13:29

I’m glad that you’ve found someone helpful. Also, who is this holy grail of a doctor?!

Show quote history

Just one at my local GP practice. it's a big doctors and I always see someone different!
This was a new dr to the surgery. It was the fact that she took the time to look at my previous results without me even mentioning it and she spotted it. I feel like she knew my ferritin wasn't right at all. The fact she's requested loads more bloods in 3 months time and to make a plan if it's still low. The other doctor just told me it was low, but I'm not anaemic and to take a tablet! No further tests or anything! She was so lovely, I actually laughed with her instead of crying.
I even had my lady garden out and she didn't make me feel uncomfortable or on edge at all! Such a breath of fresh air.

OP posts:
Rainagainandagain · 12/02/2026 14:30

MybosswasMrMcGee · 30/09/2025 21:15

What's the medication - if it's tranexamic acid it's perfectly safe, my 17 year old ds has been taking it for a couple of years.

My ferritin was at 3 for over 6 years. I really struggled with the iron tablets, they really messed with my IBS but my GP wouldn't do anything about it. I felt exhausted for so long.

After many many years I was eventually diagnosed with endometriosis and adenomyosis, that was the cause of decades of heavy periods and I was able to get iron infusions via my gynae (they are really hard to get on the NHS).

Have you discovered the cause of your heavy periods? That would be the best place to start. And don't let your GP fob you off that it's normal as they did with me.

Edited

I was treated for anaemia and I got told the heavy periods are normal by man gp. I need help with iron intake too

Rainagainandagain · 12/02/2026 14:33

Senseandsensitivity · 01/10/2025 13:28

This thread should be bloody compulsory reading for trainee GPs about the importance of correct prescribing to increase compliance with iron therapy and miminise GI upset, and the link with mental health. Ironically, i was so alone during those years... Wasnt on mumsnet then!

I agree I been put on ferrous sulphate and awful with it. Was severely anaemic and was haemoglobin of 40. Was told I could have died! Had blood transfusion bit better count now.

LadyBrendaLast · 15/02/2026 00:19

wldpwr · 30/09/2025 22:40

My ferritin was 2 when my second baby was around a year old - combination of pregnancy and hellish periods when they returned postpartum. Iron infusion totally sorted me out. It works incredibly well. Four weeks after infusion I had my ferritin repeated and it was in the hundreds. I had been anaemic but that was normal again too. All my low ferritin symptoms disappeared almost immediately (pica, restless legs, anxiety, breathlessness, fatigue).

I ended up paying for my infusion because I just wanted it ASAP, but my GP explained the gatekeepers of the iron infusions in the NHS are gastroenterologists. If you have unexplained anaemia, you go to the gastroenterologist and get a colonoscopy and/or endoscopy done, and if there's nothing horrible going on, they give you your infusion. Given this, I would go back to the GP and emphasise your IBS symptoms (and underplay your gynae symptoms) and maybe you'll tip the threshold for a gastroenterology referral.

I agree with PP, care for women with gynae-related anaemia is a joke and frankly wouldn't happen if these conditions affected men.

I wish they had done that with me. My ferritin was 12 and I had to go part time temporarily due to overwhelming fatigue. Had colonoscopy, found multiple polyps which apparently were fine, though they did remove them and discharged.

GP told me point blank no iron infusion and to do more exercise.

I'd just cancelled my gym membership as I was barely making it through the day.

18 months on, I'm sleeping every afternoon, pacing myself and apparently I'm fine, there's nothing wrong. I'm not going back to GP as last time I did the doctor told me it was in my head.

If i was a man this would not be happening.

dollyblue01 · 15/02/2026 00:46

Mines currently 10, has previously been 3 and I had an iron infusion as I went absorbing the iron , now it’s back again at 10 and I feel half dead , no energy , dizzy some days , I’ve got to do the whole trying supplements I’ve agreed to it for 3 to 4 weeks to see if I absorb it this time if not I’m going to push for an infusion again, it’s ridiculous how low they will let it get when you feel this way.

endofthelinefinally · 15/02/2026 08:49

6comma7 · 01/10/2025 21:06

I take mine with a vitamin c pill. Does it make a difference if you do that rather than orange juice?

Yes you will absorb 4 x as much by taking it with vitamin c. But you also must not drink tea or coffee within 2 hours of taking iron.

endofthelinefinally · 15/02/2026 08:52

All of these people with no gastric problems identified should be seeing a haematologist. There are many reasons for anaemia and nobody should be fobbed off like this.
Also, women should be properly assessed in terms of blood loss due to heavy periods, for example, again, instead of just being fobbed off.

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