How many of you who blasted EQ now have low ferritin?

[Beach19]

Posting my results here. Hopefully the lay out Doesn’t get messed up lol

I’ve had consistent high HCT on regular TRT and normal labs all around. Always 52-54 HCT no matter what. RBC/Hemo always close to elevated.

Added iron biglycinate when my ferritin got low (18) July to almost October, had zero effect on my ferritin. Not sure why. So I dropped it.

Did this to my labs.

View attachment 362769View attachment 362770

August was almost the worst of it with terms of iron issues. I was taking 250mg test cyp at 2iu HGH daily that time, with 1-2mg Reta a week.
Dropped the HGH & test cyp.
Prolonged androgens never let my ferritin re build. The constant demand to create new red blood cells. Pulled all my ferritin to make them. For a long time.

And fast forward to November 2025 - I’m on 150mg test cyp 1mg Reta a week. but I have to drop the Reta. Think it’s messing with my thyroid nodes. Have an ultrasound in December. Will also keep an eye on my ferritin and see if it rises even more with no Reta.
NOT TAKING IRON SUPPLEMENT. SINCE OCTOBER ISH
View attachment 362771

Posting my results here. Hopefully the lay out Doesn’t get messed up lol

I’ve had consistent high HCT on regular TRT and normal labs all around. Always 52-54 HCT no matter what. RBC/Hemo always close to elevated.

Added iron biglycinate when my ferritin got low (18) July to almost October, had zero effect on my ferritin. Not sure why. So I dropped it.

Did this to my labs.

View attachment 362769View attachment 362770
End of October was dropping iron & lowering TRT dose.

August was almost the worst of it with terms of iron issues. I was taking 250mg test cyp at 2iu HGH daily that time, with 1-2mg Reta a week.
Dropped the HGH & test cyp.
I think my issue was long term use of androgens never let my ferritin re build. The constant demand to create new red blood cells. Pulled all my ferritin to make them. For a long time.

And fast forward to November 2025 - I’m now on 150mg test cyp 1mg Reta a week. but I have to drop the Reta. Think it’s messing with my thyroid nodes. Have an ultrasound in December. Will also keep an eye on my ferritin and see if it rises even more with no Reta.
NOT TAKING IRON SUPPLEMENT. SINCE EARLY OCTOBER ISH.
View attachment 362771
Do I feel better now? No. But my ferritin and iron are staying normal now.

How long were you off test cyp? Do you think Reta is having a negative impact as well?

 

[Guzmanus]

Interesting point about the EPO production. I added ferrous sulfate to my cycle (test, deca, and EQ) and it brought my ferritin and iron levels up. I was feeling pretty run down before that.
I did notice some low ferritin issues when I was on 600 test and 300 EQ. I think part of the problem was my RBC/hemoglobin was consistently elevated.

 

[Tbaz192]

How long were you off test cyp? Do you think Reta is having a negative impact as well?

I never came off test cyp.

Just lowered dose from roughly 250 a week to 125-150 ish
Didn’t really care about my Dose timing, so it would be kinda whenever I got to it.
A few times it would be .2/.3ml on a Sunday and then I wouldn’t take more till Friday or Saturday.

Which doesn’t help this situation in a good way. Wasn’t precise at all. But my ferritin went up lol

 

[Tbaz192]

As far as Reta. A lot of us are unsure. But the slowing of gastric emptying and slower nutrient absorption from GLPs yada yada

Might play a role in iron supplements being less effective. Because they hit the stomach at a different time/rate? Not sure.

Like for example the iron ferritin protocol you can find by vrock or whatever, says GLPs will Throw off the timing of his protocol since you’re suppose to take 70mg of iron 3x a day. To overload the system.

But with Reta, the iron might not be truly hitting till hours later. So it might be hitting the same time your food?

 

[OldGHGuy]

I never had an issue with Ferritin, TRT for 10+ years and various old man "blasts" until I STOPPED Tirz after an 8 month run. Maybe stopping Tirz sped up my gastic emptying and rushed the dietary iron out of my system? Hard to know

 

[Barney67]

Posting my results here. Hopefully the lay out Doesn’t get messed up lol

I’ve had consistent high HCT on regular TRT and normal labs all around. Always 52-54 HCT no matter what. RBC/Hemo always close to elevated.

Added iron biglycinate when my ferritin got low (18) July to almost October, had zero effect on my ferritin. Not sure why. So I dropped it.

Did this to my labs.

View attachment 362769View attachment 362770
End of October was dropping iron & lowering TRT dose.

August was almost the worst of it with terms of iron issues. I was taking 250mg test cyp at 2iu HGH daily that time, with 1-2mg Reta a week.
Dropped the HGH & test cyp.
I think my issue was long term use of androgens never let my ferritin re build. The constant demand to create new red blood cells. Pulled all my ferritin to make them. For a long time.

And fast forward to November 2025 - I’m now on 150mg test cyp 1mg Reta a week. but I have to drop the Reta. Think it’s messing with my thyroid nodes. Have an ultrasound in December. Will also keep an eye on my ferritin and see if it rises even more with no Reta.
NOT TAKING IRON SUPPLEMENT. SINCE EARLY OCTOBER ISH.
View attachment 362771
Do I feel better now? No. But my ferritin and iron are staying normal now.

What was your MCV when your ferritin was low? Sometimes ferritin might be borderline/low/even a below limit and MCV can be in the lower limit of normal. Ferritin alone is not an indicator of anemia, it has to couple with CBC parameters as well as symptoms.

 

[Tbaz192]

What was your MCV when your ferritin was low? Sometimes ferritin might be borderline/low/even a below limit and MCV can be in the lower limit of normal. Ferritin alone is not an indicator of anemia, it has to couple with CBC parameters as well as symptoms.

MCV was elevated slightly
I believe for almost every lab


I’ll pull them up and edit this

One lab says 12.5 is the max.
I had 12.5 / 12.6 /12.2 (2nd October test)

Recently ( last week ) another lab measures different but I was @
89.9 out of 100 fL