Unexplained Low Ferritin

[Momof3cutekids]

I'm so frustrated that I'm Not even sure where to begin. Over a year ago it was discovered that I had low ferritin (7) & low vitamin D. I started taking a Vitamin D supplement &  Feosol 325 twice a day & was told to have more labs drawn in 3 months. I did & the Vit D level was normal. Ferritin went up to 33. My Dr told me to continue taking Feosol 325 once a day & recheck in 3 more months, which I did & it fell back to 22. I was pretty much told to continue at once a day with the iron & dismissed. In May of this year at my annual gyne appt I asked them to check my ferritin again because my extreme fatigue along with muscle/bone pain, shortness of breath & tingling of extremities had returned. It was again very low at 7. I have had tests for Celiacs, which was negative. Endoscopy/colonoscopy which showed very mild colitis, hiatal hernia & gastritis. I've never had my B12 levels tested. Is this something I should look into? Should I see a hematologist? I just want to feel good again.

[mkh9]

Hi and sorry you haven't been well. It sounds to me like you have iron deficiency anemia. I had it and had the extreme tiredness and shortness of breath as well, expecially with any exertion. The doctor made the same mistake on me. Yes it would be good to see a hematologist. The hematologist checked my hemoglobin, did a manual complete blood count (also called differential) and a iron, total iron binding capacity, iron percent saturation, and ferritin. There are several stages of anemia and only in the last stage or most deplete is the hemaglobin low. So, you can have a normal hemoglobin until late stage or third stage (I believe) iron deficiency anemia. I was in stage two had almost no iron in my bone marrow and yet my hemoglobin was always normal. My ferritin I belive was normal but my percent saturation (amount of iron in the hemoglobin) was very low. So I felt short of breath as you do, because of the lack of oxygen bound to the red cell. It takes months to get your iron and percent saturation up to normal. So the mistake that was made to both of us is that (and this was not the hematologist that made the mistake it was a new doc) once your iron is normal they lowered the amount you were taking because they were afraid you would get iron overload which is hard to get the iron out of your system once you have too much. But I went back to two pills instead of none and started over and now then once I was normal they kept checking about every 6 months. I finally felt beter and I hope you will too. Later, you change metabolically so then I only needed 1 a day to stay normal then now in my 40's I take one for two days and off one day and I am normal. Medication can cause anemia, too heavy of a period, poor iron consumption etc. so it would be good to try to find the cause. But really your B12 can be normal with iron deficiency anemia. If you have some other problem such as bleeding it will show up on your complete blood count and/or hemoglobin too. The muscle and bone pain is concerning so if you haven't had a CBC it would be good to double check what is going on there. Although, since you are so low it is possibly due to depletion. Also, there are other serious things you need to have the hematologist check for just in case. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
mkh9

[jsred]

I am not a doctor but i have read that people can have a problem with wheat gluten and not show that they have celiacs.  also if a person has celiac or has a problem with wheat gluten, that same person may have low vit B12and if you have a problem with B12 you may have a problem with low iron.  You should ask your doctor about a gluten free diet and ck to see if you are low in vit B12,  and ask if you should take a vit B complex .  B complex can give you more energy