MCV and MCH

[gillyjohnny]

Hi

I have a reading of MCV 110.6 and 34.3 MCH, does anyone know if these are considered high?

Thanks

Gillian

[Nackapan]

I think both bobbing above 'the within norm range. '

What has your doctor said ?

I imagine that theres othe.r results to consider on the same blood test.

[JanD236]

Your blood test result will include a range, usually shown in brackets after the actual result.

If you compare your result to the range that will tell you if your results are high or not.

[gillyjohnny in reply to JanD236]

They are above the range but not loads above so it just says satisfactory on my test, thank you 😊

[fbirder]

The MCV is almost certainly above the normal range (the numbers in brackets). That means your red blood cells are larger than normal. This is called macrocytic anaemia (Greek for large celled lack of blood). The two most common causes are low Vitamin B12 and low folate.

Have you had B12 and folate blood tests?

What did your doctor say about these results?

A high MCH goes along with a high MCV. MCH is a measure of how much haemaglobin there is in your red cells (Mean Cell Haemaglobin). Not surprisingly if your red cells are larger than normal they will contain more haemaglobin than normal.

[gillyjohnny in reply to fbirder]

Hi the doctor just said it’s satisfactory, I’ve had really bad tummy for the last 4 weeks but I am only going to the loo in the night, I have not had one normal bowel movement, I used to go every morning normally but it’s usually 2-5 times a night now, I’ve since spoke to the nurse and asked them to test my b12, she said there is no way I am anaemic, think the only thing on my blood test was ferritin which was 89, do you know if b12 deficiency can cause stomach issues? Thank you for replying to me 😊

[Belle76]

Hi Gillian

Yes your MVC is high not sure about MCH. I know this because my MCV is always high, when I was younger I had low b12 and had all sorts of blood tests which is how they discovered my large blood cells and low B12. I had 6 months of injections to bring it back to normal. I now follow a gluten free diet as they felt I was not absorbing food properly. ( I was young and was too scared to have a tube put down, now I’m worried about going back on to normal food as I was quite poorly).

Any way I still have high MCV and doctors think that that is just me.

I have PSA a form of arthritis, I was taking B vitamins which helped but have stopped taking them to see if it makes a change on next blood tests

[gillyjohnny]

I’ve looked back on other blood tests and the mcv has increased over the last few years, doctors only seem to look at that it says satisfactory and not the bigger picture, it’s rubbish worrying that something is wrong 🤦🏼‍♀️ Thanks for replying to me 😊