Ferrous Fumarate tablets - confused

When I first bought these I'm certain the pharmacist said that they only had the smaller ones in stock, ie 210mg.

Just been to buy some more in a different chemist and the pharmacist told me that 210mg is the only size, for anything more the tablet changes name and a prescription would be needed.

Is this correct? Are 3 tablets sufficient to raise ferritin that's been low for years, despite taking Floradix?

Many thanks.

[Polina44]

My ferritin level is 13 ug/l and I'm on 2 tablets of 210 per day.

Only taking one at the moment as i suffer badly with constipation.

[Hidden in reply to Polina44]

Polina - thanks for your reply and presumably your GP is prescribing? Are you taking it with vit C and orange juice?

The pharmacist said I should see my GP about low level, I told him that for years GPs had not even noticed cos I'd seen my medical records and the GPs were rubbish. Turned out there was quite a queue behind me!!

[Clutter in reply to Hidden]

CG, I think GPs can prescribe 325mg but probably only 2 x daily. 210mg x 3 should improve ferritin if you can tolerate that much.

[Hidden in reply to Clutter]

Thanks Clutter. I do seem to be tolerating 3 tablets of 210mg but do take them all at once rather than 3 times daily.

[Jo5454 in reply to Hidden]

Hi, I'm also taking the same iron as you, although I was told by the pharmacist to take one with each meal. I usually take them between my main meal and afters, they seem to be easier on my stomach that way, if that's any help. My ferritin was 12 3 months ago, and have just been retested and it's risen to 42, but I'd just had a virus so am aware that this could have made the test result read much higher than it is! But at least it was t lower have also been eating liver twice a week ( discovered pigs liver has 3 times the amount of iron than other types- forgive me mentioning it if you are a vegetarian, I was trying to eat many more vegetarian based meals, but obviously it wasn't suiting my health- so thought if I've gotta eat liver, may as well get the max iron from it) also beetroot, red cabbage which has double the iron of green apparently! and corned beef...

Is there a reason your iron is being stubborn to raise do you think? All these levels seem to be interlinked, since starting iron 3 months ago my b12 has now dropped 150 to 296, so seems like I'll have to supplement that now! My vit d has also been found to be low, don't know if you've checked yours?

Hope you soon see an improvement...Jo

[Jo5454 in reply to Jo5454]

P.s I try and take mine with water and a squeeze of lemon juice, was advised it aids absorption?

[Polina44 in reply to Hidden]

Hi Yes I'm taking with Vit C thanks. Turns out my ferritin has been this low for years! Asked why no one had ever mentioned it and I got a shrug! If it wasn't for the fact I had asked for a print out of my bloods after taking advice from this forum I'd still be none the wiser!! My GPs are a joke. Didn't have my bloods done for 2 years because I got so sick of their obsession with TSH!! 😖

[Hidden in reply to Polina44]

I know Polina. There seems to be a huge gap in GPs knowledge regarding vitamins and minerals, my experience also that they are unable to read and understand blood tests. I avoid them like the plague as I've no confidence in them.