Not sure what to make of my Iron study.

[iorigins91]

Do I need to supplement, if so, how much and often?

I don’t understand why it’s low, I eat a diet in moderate amount of meat. I also eat a lot of eggs and nuts. My B12 levels are high normal.

I don’t bleed out of my rectum, stool looks normal.

Is there an absorption issue with my body, if so is there a way to test that? I did test CRP which was also normal.

Hemoglobin and Hematocrit are normal.

I take 150mg test cyp, 75mg twice a week.

 

[Nidus]

Any GLPs or genetic issues running within the family or known?

 

[DugPrime]

Ferritin is low, just start to supplement.

~50mg a day of Iron (as Iron amino acid chelate) should be good enough.

 

[iorigins91]

Any GLPs or genetic issues running within the family or known?

Are specific there tests for that? I do know on my mother side there are GI issues, including GI cancers. No diabetics in any families memembers or obesity.

 

[Nidus]

Are specific there tests for that? I do know on my mother side there are GI issues, including cancers. No diabetics in any families remembers or obesity.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Celiac Disease and IBS are the first ones coming to my mind known causing Iron absorption issues.

As Dug mentioned earlier, try to supplement Iron with some Vit. C together and maybe try to get a full check up for the GI tract like allergies for foods, see if there is something that causes bowel inflammation and so on.

 

[iorigins91]

Thank you, that sounds like a sound plan. Would hate to just throw a bandaid on it, but rather get to the bottom. Will supplement in meantime.

 

[Nidus]

Thank you, that sounds like a sound plan. Would hate to just throw a bandaid on it, but rather get to the bottom. Will supplement in meantime.

Thats the right approach, being proactive about it and getting to the bottom line of it will give you a peace of mind

 

[Dunkirk]

I take it you weren't sick recently and you feel fine? If that's the case are you taking any additional supplements like calcium or zinc? Those may be the culprit.

If all that checks out, I strongly recommend you check with a doctor. That's pretty low. Also you didn't mention if you were taking glps.

 

[nullandvoid]

Do you donate blood, and how often? Blood donations, particularly double-red devastate Ferritin stores. Over time, you will chip away at your stores until you'll start seeing other blood markers go out of range.. MCV, MCH, MCHC. Your body is pulling from your Ferritin stores to keep Iron levels up faster than it's getting replenished. It's good you caught it this early. I've been through this a lot and got a lot deeper before figuring it out. Fixing it takes a very long time. I've been through all kinds of iron, non-heme and heme. I took ProFerrin ES for years, which was very expensive, and it really didn't help. I finally switched to simple, cheap Ferrex 150, and all my markers are good. They aren't even close to being out of range, now. I struggled with it for five years or so until I tried the Ferrex.

 

[Superchicken]

If you do any kind of endurance training or intense exercise, that can negatively affect ferritin. If you google “runners anemia ferritin” you should find more info. Iron deficiency can also be passed on from birth if the mother didn’t have adequate stores.

 

[iorigins91]

I take it you weren't sick recently and you feel fine? If that's the case are you taking any additional supplements like calcium or zinc? Those may be the culprit.

If all that checks out, I strongly recommend you check with a doctor. That's pretty low. Also you didn't mention if you were taking glps.

No. Not taking GLP’s. Only supplementing with fish oil, D3/K2, and sometimes magnesium once a week.

 

[iorigins91]

Do you donate blood, and how often? Blood donations, particularly double-red devastate Ferritin stores. Over time, you will chip away at your stores until you'll start seeing other blood markers go out of range.. MCV, MCH, MCHC. Your body is pulling from your Ferritin stores to keep Iron levels up faster than it's getting replenished. It's good you caught it this early. I've been through this a lot and got a lot deeper before figuring it out. Fixing it takes a very long time. I've been through all kinds of iron, non-heme and heme. I took ProFerrin ES for years, which was very expensive, and it really didn't help. I finally switched to simple, cheap Ferrex 150, and all my markers are good. They aren't even close to being out of range, now. I struggled with it for five years or so until I tried the Ferrex.

No, I haven’t donated blood recently. Last time was 4 months ago. Not doing it again. I believe I have results from 2 years before where my levels were low/borderline but not as low. It’s bizarre, I don’t do much cardio either, I eat plenty of meat, I believe it’s an absorption issue as someone else stated.


I’ll check out the brand for sure.

 

[iorigins91]

If you do any kind of endurance training or intense exercise, that can negatively affect ferritin. If you google “runners anemia ferritin” you should find more info. Iron deficiency can also be passed on from birth if the mother didn’t have adequate stores.

Only like 3 weeks ago I incorporated cardio and it’s only 1 mile 3x a week. So it’s not that, and I have iron labs before cardio as well and they were almost just as low. Doc brushed it off and said take Iron, but this time I’m pushing for further studies.

Was low many years ago as well.

 

[Alert_Custard]

I have the opposite issue. Too much iron. More than a year ago I significantly reduced red meat consumption and stopped taking a multivitamin. I has made zero difference.

 

[nullandvoid]

No, I haven’t donated blood recently. Last time was 4 months ago. Not doing it again. I believe I have results from 2 years before where my levels were low/borderline but not as low. It’s bizarre, I don’t do much cardio either, I eat plenty of meat, I believe it’s an absorption issue as someone else stated.


I’ll check out the brand for sure.

I think it can be individual, but Ferrex 150 is very cheap compared to other supplements. It is the only supplement that works for me. I take three a day, one with each meal. I struggled a very long time to keep Ferritin and Iron up, and my blood metrics were also out of range; I was pumping out low quality RBC's. My issue may also be absorption, but I do have to also donate due to hematocrit. I don't think it should be this hard to keep Ferritin up. Most people even donating don't seem to have a problem. Good luck.

 

[HUGE McBIGLARGE]

I had low ferritin. So I tripled my iron supplement dose. My ferritin rose 20% but was still low. My hemoglobin, however, rose about 10%, and was close to high.

Apparently, on androgens, your body will continually pump iron into RBCs and hemoglobin.

If you take a fat dose of iron 3x a day for a week, and repeat that every 5 weeks, it should cause hepcidin to rise, causing your body to not absorb dietary iron, and instead recycle ferritin more efficiently from exhausted RBCs.

I take 70mg iron bisglycinate 3 times a day for a week every 5 weeks, and my ferritin doubled and my hemoglobin went down slightly.

It’s to my understanding that whilst on gear you want to keep your ferritin high, whilst keeping RBCs, hemoglobin, and hematocrit low. This should help.

Fixing High Hemoglobin or Hematocrit and Low Ferritin While on TRT