I am having very frustrating experience with my anemia status, and no doctor can give me real answers.
In the summer time, my ferritin was at 48 and my hemoglobin at 105 (10.5) after 2 iron IVs. After 1 month, my hemoglobin was still at 105 and my ferritin was at 3.
A month and a half ago my hemoglobin was 125 and my ferritin was 76 after 3 iron IVs. Now my hemoglobin is 135 and my ferritin is 20.
No doctor can explain why my ferritin continues to drop so much yet my hemoglobin barely goes up. I am not bleeding either.
Some theories:
- I started going back to the gym just over a month ago and have gained 15lbs
- according to the Root Cause Protocol people, ferritin is not a reliable indicator of how much iron is in the body and actually only shows inflammation levels; iron that is not adequately co-factored with ceruloplasmin (copper) and magnesium will end up in random tissue rather than in the serum and will give a low ferritin reading
- I have bleeding somewhere I don't know about -- I do have IBD ulcerative colitis, but my stool tests show no occult blood and I've been in remission for months
- I have simply been recovering and the iron requirement has been very high for some reason
According to conventional wisdom, iron only leaves the body through bleeding, which is not happening right now. I can't find any literature on why ferritin would drop so low in such a short time.
Right now I am definitely feeling it. Weaker, more tired, more brain fog. So the anemia is real, whether iron is just "gone" or in some mysterious random bodily tissue.
Does anyone here have any idea??? I have seriously been to 3 doctors and two naturopaths and nobody knows. They just keep giving me more iron IVs.
In the summer time, my ferritin was at 48 and my hemoglobin at 105 (10.5) after 2 iron IVs. After 1 month, my hemoglobin was still at 105 and my ferritin was at 3.
A month and a half ago my hemoglobin was 125 and my ferritin was 76 after 3 iron IVs. Now my hemoglobin is 135 and my ferritin is 20.
No doctor can explain why my ferritin continues to drop so much yet my hemoglobin barely goes up. I am not bleeding either.
Some theories:
- I started going back to the gym just over a month ago and have gained 15lbs
- according to the Root Cause Protocol people, ferritin is not a reliable indicator of how much iron is in the body and actually only shows inflammation levels; iron that is not adequately co-factored with ceruloplasmin (copper) and magnesium will end up in random tissue rather than in the serum and will give a low ferritin reading
- I have bleeding somewhere I don't know about -- I do have IBD ulcerative colitis, but my stool tests show no occult blood and I've been in remission for months
- I have simply been recovering and the iron requirement has been very high for some reason
According to conventional wisdom, iron only leaves the body through bleeding, which is not happening right now. I can't find any literature on why ferritin would drop so low in such a short time.
Right now I am definitely feeling it. Weaker, more tired, more brain fog. So the anemia is real, whether iron is just "gone" or in some mysterious random bodily tissue.
Does anyone here have any idea??? I have seriously been to 3 doctors and two naturopaths and nobody knows. They just keep giving me more iron IVs.