Need Iron Supplement Help

[girllennon]

Greetings,

After my last visit two weeks ago with my PA, I was told to take 25mg of Iron once a week to slowly bring up my ferritin levels. She recommended dosing in this manner to prevent constipation. I tried 25mg of Gentle Iron by Solgar. I took only one capsule over 10 days ago and have been severely constipated since. I was doing fine for the last 6 months and maintaining regularity with magnesium, flax and psyllium supplements. Taking iron that ONE time completely threw off my intestinal balance that I fought so long to achieve.

I've tried a few OTC meds over the past few days (stool softeners, laxatives ocassionally) and finally got some relief overnight after dealing with many sleepless nights from discomfort. I want to follow up with my provider because I feel that this problem is persisting but I wanted some insight for more knowledgeable members before doing so.

Is there another form of iron that will not cause me distress? I'm not getting enough iron from food because I have Hashimoto's, so a lot of food choices are out, including iron fortified cereals and breads. I have done a bit a research and found that Floradix Iron + Herbs liquid supplement shouldn't cause me issues but after this experience, I'm skeptical of all iron supplements.

Any advice or feedback is most appreciated.

[gimel]

Reportedly the best form of iron is ferrous bisglycinate.  To avoid having problems with iron it is a good idea to take Vitamin C along with it.

25 mg once a week is almost nothing.   That sounds more like a minimum daily dose if your ferritin was fairly low.  For example my ferritin was 40 and I started with 25 mg daily and then went up to 50 in order to raise my ferritin to 80.  Along with the daily dose it would be a good idea to take 500-1000 mg of Vitamin C.   Currently I am taking about 50 mg of iron along with about 400 mg of magnesium, which works well.