Confused

[Lizzie69]

I am terribly confused by B12 deficiency, iron deficiency anaemia and vit d deficiency. The reason being that my haemoglobin has gone up from 103 in June to 133 in October with ferrous furmate tablets. My ferritin has improved from 6 to 33 in range 15-200ug/L in the last few months.

My vit d is 25 in range 25-50 but I am not deficient so GP says. The confused bit is my B12 was 201 in June and has gone up to 219 in October. The only difference is that I have been eating liver and talking iron tablets.

GP puts it down to depression for still feeling tired and low. I don't know why my B12 was low to begin and is a difference of 18 significant or is there poor reliability with the two different tests.

GP will run bloods again in 1 month but don't think that will be B12, just FBC and not even sure vit d.

Any thoughts greatly received.

[Galixie]

A difference from 201 to 219 is not significant. It is certainly not much of a bump considering the 4 months between the tests. You could either try a supplement with a much higher concentration of B12 or point out to the doctor that your results basically haven't changed in 4 months (so maybe they should figure out why it's low to begin with and correct it).

[Sleepybunny]

"GP will run bloods again in 1 month but don't think that will be B12, just FBC and not even sure vit d."

Have you asked GP which tests will be done?

Have you had an IFA (Intrinsic Factor Antibody) test?

In the past I have sometimes offered to pay for tests that I felt needed to be done but where GP was a bit reluctant. It is possible at some surgeries to have private blood tests done.

How about ringing the PAS? They are helpful and sympathetic.

pernicious-anaemia-society....

01656 769467

[Laura5]

I had iron deficiency anaemia without any obvious reason. I asked for tests for coeliac disease, h pylori and antiparietal cell antibodies as these are the main three causes of iron deficiency which isn't caused by bleeding. In coeliac disease I think that the anaemia is usually unresponsive to iron tablets - so I think it is more likely to be h pylori or the antiparietal cell antibodies causing the problem in your case. Both of these can lead to low B12 levels too.

In my case the antibodies came back positive and that persuaded my GP to give me B12 injections even though my B12 level was much higher than yours.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/159...