Should I be worried about these blood results? My friend has me having kittens now…

[HavingKittenswithWorry]

Been tired for years with stomach issues like pain/bloated/gas etc and it’s gotten worse and worse l so saw gp again week. Suggested bloods and gynae referral. Hospital rang to offer me a gynae appt/scan which I was surprised came so quickly (gp said 12 months) for mid September. I mentioned this to a friend who works at the doctors surgery and she suggested I look at my last two blood test results- I wish I hadn’t as I don’t know what they mean and Google is making it more confusing, and now I’m worrying a bit. Friend says the following are concerning as are out of range?
Recent bloods-
serum vitamin d - 92nmol/L
serum vitamin b12 - 240ng/L
serum ferritin level - 24ug/L
serum folate 3.8ug/L
CA125 - 40

previous bloods in 2022
platelet count 415

theres loads more numbers and results but she said these are the concerning ones?

Am really worried as CA125 mentions cancer and linked to my symptoms I’m worrying. Any advice please?

Ferritin levels under 30 should have treatment according to nice guidelines.
CA125-depending on your labs reference ranges-might be a little high BUT a raised CA125 doesn’t necessarily indicate cancer (just as a low CA125 doesn’t mean no cancer), it can also be down to endometriosis afaia,

Normal range for vitamin D is above 50, but above 75 for bone protection.
B12 at our lab is iirc 150-900 so that’s fine for our area.
Folate for our lab I think is >5 so yours might be a little low. You need to check what your labs reference range is really, they vary depending on the labs equipment.

@CluelessAboutCars thank you, can I ask how I find out the lab reference range please? Also, what treatment should I do/expect for the lower ranges?

CA125 can be raised for all kinds of reasons.

However, is your friend a receptionist at your doctors and did she suggest that you look at your results because she already had, and was trying to be ‘helpful’? She’s really not allowed to do that.

@HavingKittenswithWorry are your periods heavy? I had low ferritin and slightly raised CA125 and it was fibroids. My understanding was CA125 would be higher than 40 if it was something sinister, and that it's not a hugely accurate indicator anyway without eg scans to back it up. If they are going to ultrasound, could be looking for fibroids/cysts. My main symptom was very heavy periods which was causing the low iron and fatigue.

@LulaK yes I do think they are quite heavy although it’s hard to quantify what heavy is I think? they’ve always been heavy and I’m 41 now!

@HavingKittenswithWorry They say heavy if you're soaking through a pad or tampon once an hour. I was worse than that come the end (I had a hysterectomy eventually). I don't know how it works where you are, but here the GP referral to gynae would likely take a year before you're sat in front of someone, but they do all the scans etc they need to along the way so that the gynae then has all the info in front of them to make a plan - maybe the scan department are being efficient, or had a cancellation or something??

@LulaK yes definitely heavy then. And yes the gp said it’d be 12-18 months to see gynae so I was so surprised when they rang to give me an appointment next month, think that’s why I worried a bit. Hopefully they just had a cancellation or something and it’s not a quick referral (which gp didn’t say). Thank you.

@HavingKittenswithWorry ah right sorry I misunderstood - thought next month was just scan. I don’t really understand how it all works - I waited an age for one consultant but then they moved me to another and it was quicker <shrugs> good luck! 💜

Sorry that you are stressed by this and hope you find some answers from a professional.

Is your friend a doctor?
Why are they looking at your results?
Are you comfortable that they have access to your medical records?

@BathPoppadum
my friend does work there (some sort of admin role but not sure what), and maybe a little bit of knowledge is bad but she only suggested I look at the results which I did on the nhs app thing and I showed them to her, and she gave her insight.

also it says No Further Action which makes me wonder what if anything the gp will do?

does anyone know what treatment I can be doing now to improve things? Google and the iron protocol is literally blowing my mind and I can’t make head nor tail of it all? I’ve never had health anxiety but I’m feeling not right at all about it.

I can confirm that GP Receptionists DEFINITELY spend all of that spare time they get in the work day looking through their friends results then telling their friends to look them up on the back of what they have read. It's their favourite hobby between the odd phone call they get here and there from other patients.

I hope everything is ok OP 😊.

That wasn’t what I meant, but I can see if you’ve had a conversation with her about your worries, some people MIGHT decide to have a nosy and see if there was anything on the system. That’s what I would think if she’d been so specific as to say “Check the last two sets of blood results”.

If you look on the app your results figures will be there along with the labs reference ranges next to it.