• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Ferritin level and anemia

Messages
2
Junior Member
(male)

Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 11
reputation_balance.gif


Ferritin level and anemia
Hi everyone,

I know many people already asked this question but please bear with me.

I suddenly get fatigue and feel very tired for couple of hours during the day and everything comes back to normal. I get shortness of breath some days- is this a symptom of anemia.

my symptoms does not stay all the time they come and go..

I went to the doctor and he said anemia stays all the time and it doesn't come and go and he said ferritin level 9 (ref range 20 to 300) is normal. Below are my test results.

Do you think i am anemic and its because of Ferritin

hemoglobin- 13.0 g/dL ( normal- 13.2-17.1)
MCHC --- 31.4 g/dl (normal- 32.- 36.0)
IRON binding capacity--429 (normal 250-425mcg/dl)
IRON,Total------139 (normal- 45-175 mcg/dl)
Ferritin----------- 9 ( ref range 20 to 300)
 

girlfromeurope

Senior Member
Messages
131
Ferritin level of 9 is definitely not normal.
The range is between 20 to 300 but even 20 is low. This could make you feel tired.
I had a ferritin of 20 for a couple of years( this made me feel tired with hair loss and dizziness) but got iron injections.
 

TigerLilea

Senior Member
Messages
1,147
Location
Vancouver, British Columbia
You don't say how old you are but I would definitely get back in to your doctor and find out why you are anemic. Nine is definitely anemia and men should not have low ferritin levels. You should probably have a colonoscopy done to check for any bleeding polyps as they are a common cause of anemia in men. And you might want to consider getting a new GP.
 
Messages
2
Thank you so much for the responses and your support, I am 27 years old. will the anemia symptoms stay all the time..or will they come and go as happening in my case

I started taking ferrous sulphate from past 2 weeks (2 times a day) and eating lots of spinach and vitamin c foods.Hope I get better soon. Doc checked me for H pylori (did stool test to find internal bleeding) but it was neg.

He said my symptoms could be because of anxiety and not because of ferritin level (9). I read it takes a long time to build up ferritin, will continue to take ferrous sulphate for another month and visit a diff doctor for tests.
 

PDXhausted

Senior Member
Messages
258
Location
NW US
When I initially got my CFS symptoms and did the full battery of tests to try and figure out what was wrong, one of the things they found for me was a ferritin of 17 (as well as low D and low B12). At that point, I started taking a multivitamin for the first time as well as an iron supplement... I gradually worked my way up on the iron supplement to 100mg of iron daily (spread throughout the day), and this helped with alot of my symptoms-- most noticeably shortness of breath, heart palpitations and anxiety. For me, having a low ferritin actually exacerbated my anxiety symptoms. Increasing my iron helped reduce that.

After about a year of supplementing at 100mg, my ferritin only got up to around 30. I've heard that anything under 40 can cause symptoms.

I eventually ended up quitting the iron because some of my other iron labs were high (serum iron, saturation, etc) but I feel alot worse off of it. And now that it has been around a year off, alot of my symptoms are coming back- shortness of breath, heart palpitations, etc. So I'm still trying to figure it out myself, but I can say that taking iron really does eventually help the symptoms of low ferritin, but it does take time.