Anonymous wrote:Have them check to see if you're a thalassemia carrier. If you are, you are healthy but you have smaller than usual red blood cells which can cause a false positive on an anemia test. If that's the case, all the iron in the world is not going to make it better. It just is what it is.

+1

If you have ancestors from the Mediterranean region, this could be it. I didn't know I was a carrier until I got pregnant and the OB had me tested (Italian American).

I was told to take chelated iron, to pair it with citrus for absorption, and to avoid dairy and tea/coffee for two hours before and after I took my supplement. Otherwise it won't be as effective.

And yeah, you have to take supplements for a long time to be effective. Iron is stored in your body (heart/muscles) and it takes a long while to build your body's stores back up.

Anonymous wrote:I'm always a 9. The pills don't really help me but I take them off and on. I think we both feel pretty awful most of the time. You are probably so used to feeling crappy you don't know what it feels like to feel normal.

Sorry, 1455 here, and I have to comment on this.

Once you reach the point of actual anemia, it takes about 6 full months of compliant supplementation for them to "help" reverse your numbers. You will see pretty rapid improvement in the actual state of your RBCs (no longer small, have more hemoglobin), but the underlying supply of ferreting needs to be resolved before the problem will correct itself in a more long-term fashion. Until you replace the actual stores in your body (which happens long after the blood cells are improved and you FEEL better), you're just in a cycle.

This being said, not all supplements are equal. Iron has a ton of side effects, some fomulations are harder to digest and tolerate than others, etc. Personally, I've found the most success with a heme / polypeptide supplement (Proferrin is the "brand", but you can get generics). They're expensive compared to the other ones, but are known to have less side effects, be more easily tolerated, and thus are more likely to have you take them every day.

One of my symptoms before I was diagnosed with celiac disease was severe iron deficient anemia. I was weak and tired all the time and my iron number was very low and I had depleted all of my iron stores as well. Thankfully it was a red flag to the hematologist that I saw but not to the internist who said it was just because I was a women who bled once a month 20 years ago. I'm not suggesting you have celiac disease, but I am still surprised that doctors would treat anemia without looking into the cause.

I'm always a 9. The pills don't really help me but I take them off and on. I think we both feel pretty awful most of the time. You are probably so used to feeling crappy you don't know what it feels like to feel normal.

i was an 8, and it took me a year to reach 15. it was awful. it still is awful, as i cant seem to increase beyond 15. i was told to start taking 2 iron pills a day.

all this to say increasing your numbers takes real
time, and sometimes the iron you are taking may not be absorbing correctly. it is very debilitating and you need to keep getting checked out to make sure it is improving. as PPs alluded to, it's no joke.

I was so severely anemic once I Was experiencing heart failure. Doc told me had I not been so athletic (body resourceful at utilizing available oxygen) I would have been in the hospital. It was awful.

Thing is, the OTC supplements are nearly as effective as anything prescription based. Some are more digestible / better utilized in the body than others, often along with cost.

Don't mess around with anemia

Have them check to see if you're a thalassemia carrier. If you are, you are healthy but you have smaller than usual red blood cells which can cause a false positive on an anemia test. If that's the case, all the iron in the world is not going to make it better. It just is what it is.

Yes it can be bad and debilitating. My mom has a very bad back from low iron. She gets blood transfusions and was told if it doesn't improve there's a chance of bone marrow transplant. She gets tics to eat ice nonstop when it gets bad.

Mine was 6.5 a few years ago, and I had to have a blood transfusion.

I've always had some level of anemia, I guess. Doctors have never seemed too concerned; I was just told to grab an OTC iron pill. I did that for a while, but never felt any different so stopped. Got it checked again recently while giving blood and it's 9.5. The tech seemed so horrified. Is that really bad? What are the consequences? I occasionally have heavy periods but not currently.