Blood Iron results

[rlsagain]

Hello everyone.

My long awaited appointment at the gp surgery finally arrived and I was seen by a somewhat inexperienced health care assistant who suggested I drink a glass of tonic water before bed to help with my RLS! When I tried to explain my research, this forum and the Mayo Clinic algorithm (with print outs, notes and screenshots), she was completely out of her depth so eventually arranged an appointment for me with an actual doctor (hooray).

This turned out to be a phone call, not face to face, and although reasonably sympathetic, he said my iron levels in June 2020 were normal, implying they were recent enough not to need new tests. When I mentioned RLS sufferers need higher levels, he reiterated mine are fine:

Serum iron level 10.3 umol/l [5.8 - 34.5]

Serum transferrin level 992.4 g/L [2 - 3.6]

Transferrin saturation index 17 % [15 - 45]

Serum ferritin level 91 ng/ml [13 - 150]

Are they?

[Madlegs1]

No.

Get a new clinic.

[rlsagain in reply to Madlegs1]

Oh Madlegs, were it that simple! I live in a rural part of the U.K. so finding another surgery just ain’t that easy. And, according to their latest stats, my current surgery out-performs all others in the local health authority and is better than the national average with regard to patient satisfaction and outcomes, which gives me little faith in finding a better alternative… Thank you for replying to my plea, though!

[SueJohnson]

Your transferrin saturation is low - below 20% and it is usually advised to have an iron infusion to raise it. Also your ferritin is below 100 and again an iron infusion is advised as iron tablets are not readily absorbed if your ferritin is above 75.

[rlsagain in reply to SueJohnson]

Thank you so much Sue. I thought as much… I’m taking gentle iron each night (as per your previous advice), which I wasn’t on two years ago when the last tests were done, so in a couple of months I’ll ask for another blood test to see if that’s helped and if not, go down that tricky path of trying to get an iron infusion 🤞

[WideBody]

It looks like you are low.

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

Look at chapter 8. Ask your doctor to do another morning fasted full iron panel. They are inexpensive and easy. Do it in the morning, Ferritin is lowest in the morning. Do it fasted, because what you eat can raise your ferritin.

As Sue said, a TSP of less than 20% is indicative of iron insufficiency. I have something called Iron Deficiency Without Anemia. Doctors are only taught to look for anemia. Hence they missed mine for over 10 years.

Your Doctor should read this.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Good luck, but I would focus on your iron for a bit.