My previous GP never prescribed me iron despite my ferritin being 38. However I have taken some over the years, although it never agreed with me very well, and it was up to 93 when checked by my new GP, who seems to be more knowledgeable about rls. In February she prescribed Ferrous Fumerate 210mg twice a day, which I took with vitamin C to help absorption, and this agrees with me well. By the end of March, after 6 weeks, my ferritin was up to 126, and now it is 219!
So this is a great response and my rls does seem to be reduced a bit, but not gone - yet. So still hoping.
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Anne_liz
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Luckily I am not going to need an iron infusion, which I know are not always without problems, and not just skin stainingr. As my ferritin has increased quite quickly to 219, it should be up to 300 within the next 2-3 months. Much after that iron can become toxic so I will have to reduce it to a maintenance dose. I just hope it gets rid of my rls completely by then - it already seems reduced in severity. I know it is different for many other people who have difficulty taking iron or do not respond well to it. They do need infusions.
Incidentally I have not read here of anybody taking this form of iron, ferrous fumerate, and I wonder if anyone else has found that it works well.
Here in NL, it is the standard prescribed by doctors, mainly for anaemia of course. Most, if not all scientific papers on iron in blood/body and how to raise it use ferro(ferrous) fumerate.
How much of the B6 and B12 and Vitamin C (I think you mentioned) do you take daily with the iron? I am going through iron infusions right now and would hate for them not to work because of not taking those other vitamins with it.
That would very much depend, I assume, on your B6, B12 and vit C status to begin with. The concerted action of these three with iron infusion for RLS have not been researched to my knowledge. The studies on which the recommendation of the IRLSSG for iron infusions are based may well have looked into B6,B12 and vit C (and other) status on the effectiveness of the infusions. But it says somewhere in the paper (from the top of my head) that they couldn’t find any pre-existing factors that could predict whether an infusion would be successful or not. Only about half of them are.
In sum, nobody knows whether the these would be of benefit or not. So, don’t worry as it will not help. Only time will tell.....
I was also prescribed ferrous fumerate 210mg twice a day and it did me wonders after just a month after I decided to go to the doctor as my RLS escalated drastically and stopped me from sleeping more than less than a handful of hours at night. It was last year, and I had had it for about 4 years awakening once at night before this happened. I took ferrous fumerate for three months in total as indicated. I then stopped for a few months but felt I had to start again when the episodes became a bit more intense again (although not as bad as when I ended up having to go to the GP). I just get it from the pharmacy without prescription. Now I am only taking one tablet a day. My RLS has not gone totally either but I usually awake only once at night because of my leg(s), spray magnesium and put my legs on ice block wrapped in a thin towel and it usually calms it down within minutes. Occasionally it takes a bit longer for my leg(s) to calm down, in which case I just switch the light back on and read to distract my brain from it. After half an hour to an hour max I am back sleeping for a few hours.
I think that once your ferritin has gone up to a level where it is helping your rls, you need to keep taking a lower maintenance dose. Otherwise your ferritin may drop again and rls return.
Some time ago my GP prescribed me ferrous fumarate 201 tablets (1 tablet with main meal once a day) with redoxon vit C because my ferritin was also 35.My ferritin has increased to 50 and because I seem to tolerate iron tablets he has prescribed me TWO tablets ONCE a day with main meal to try and bring my ferritin up to 75.
My legs are still driving me CRAZY and the last few nights I have been running round the house and I am so so tired.
Maybe I should of my own accord up my iron tablets to twice a day with meals.
There is no need to increase the iron because your body will not absorb that much. I believe you only need it every other day, but someone else may know more about that. However raising levels to just 75 is unlike to be enough to be effective. It should be at least over 100, preferably over 200. I got mine to 230, though it took a few months, which is along time to wait when you are suffering. Many people recommend iron infusions to do it faster, but it is difficult to get these. However you levels seem to be going up well so you should get there. Are you taking anything else to control your symptoms? Good luck with this and I hope it is effective.
Thank you for that. I will persevere. Yes I am taking a high dose of gabapentin but this does not seem to be working.I was on neupro patches which were brilliant for years until they stopped working.
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