Can anyone help me with my iron blood test results?

M

maiken77

Messages
15
Location
Denmark
Hi.

I have been dealing with multiple symptoms for a long time now - Doctor thinks is all in my head - I dont!! I had a blood test taken, but my doctors appointment is not until Friday, and I am very interested in finding out, if I was right (suspecting my iron to be too low) It looks like it in the blood tests, from what I can see. But I dont understand why some of my results seems to be within range, and others so low?
My results: (I'm From Denmark, so we might be using other terms/ranges here)

* Ferritin;P
handbook.png
(Ref.: 15-120)
µg/l

23

*Iron (Ref.: 9-34)

9
* Transferrin (Ref.: 24-41)

33


*Transferrin saturation (Ref. 0,10 - 0,50)

0,14
 
aaron_c

aaron_c

Senior Member
Messages
693
Hi @maiken77

I am not a doctor and don't have a lot of experience looking at these test results--so at best all I am doing is bringing up questions to ask someone who has seen more of these tests. I will generally make the assumption that the average test result is in the middle of the reference range, but that is almost certainly wrong. I am also dealing with iron issues right now, so I have done a little reading.

You have low serum iron, and most of your serum iron comes from iron bound to transferrin--which is also towards the low end of the "healthy" range. So it makes sense that your lowish transferrin saturation would cause a lowish amount of iron in your blood in total.

Your ferritin (a problematic indicator of your body's total iron status) would generally be considered ok...on the low end of ok, but ok. But if ferritin was increased from chronic inflammation and/or infection, it might be higher than it otherwise would--meaning that your body stores might be lower than your ferritin results would at first suggest. If this is the case, you might in fact be iron deficient.

The other thing that could be happening is low ceruloplasmin, which is a copper-containing enzyme that is essential for attaching iron to tranferrin, and also helps you to absorb iron from the gut in the first place. People with low ceruloplasmin can take all the iron pills they want without increasing transferrin saturation--the iron that is absorbed gets stored in the liver. Vitamin A and copper are both important for increasing ceruloplasmin. I wouldn't just start taking vitamin A or copper, as both of these nutrients exist in balance with other nutrients. If you think this is the problem, I would first check out ceruloplasmin levels in your blood.
 
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