Ferritin

[haggisplant]

Hooray!

I got my ferritin up to 82 from 55 at Xmas. I'm still struggling with slight muscle loss and cramping etc but the itch is hardly there and I started being able to sleep again 2 weeks ago.

I'm still on iron tablets; at what point do you think it'll be acceptable to stop or go onto a maintenance dose? IE what do we generally try to aim for (think upper range 130)

My Tsh was 0.08 t4 23 BUT I do make sure i don't take the thyroxine till after the test and always around 9am. I've had *some* overactive symptoms and always used to be best on 125/150 so dropping to this - 150 x 4 days and 125 x 3 days. Test in 3 mo. I always feel this dose also give flexibility of I have a bit of a bleugh week though I now know clearly this can be due to other things. I'm ancipating loosing a few pounds as I get more active / go back to work too.

I have hms and still trying to build up muscle so it's actually hard to gauge 'how I feel'.

Does this seem sensible? ( hate how we end up analysing tiny decimal points!!)

[humanbean]

Once you've reached mid-range for ferritin, don't go higher.

[humanbean in reply to humanbean]

According to Isabella Wentz :

Normal ferritin levels for women are between 12 and 150 ng/mL. According to some experts, the optimal ferritin level for thyroid function is between 90-110 ng/ml.

thyroidpharmacist.com/blog/...

I've seen comments on several sites about what the ideal ferritin level is (and it seems to vary a lot) but they rarely mention a range that they are comparing to, nor do many of them make any reference to the thyroid.

At least Wentz states what she considers the normal range to be, and is discussing the subject in relation to people who have thyroid disorders. I still wish she had given a corroborating reference though.

[haggisplant in reply to humanbean]

Oh ok, cross post! Thanks!

In my head I thought 90 seemed reasonable.

[haggisplant in reply to humanbean]

That's what I'm trying to work out - what would be mid range? 90?

55 was bad FOR ME but other things were going on.

I'm having very heavy periods following their return after having my son. They might settle but I don't know.

[humanbean in reply to haggisplant]

To find the middle of any two numbers, add the two numbers together and divide by two. So, if the range is 12 - 150, then the middle of the range is 81. I'm guessing there will be some wiggle room, but how much? I have no idea.

However, applying this to reference ranges is always going to be a bit dodgy unless you know the underlying distribution of values is a normal bell-shaped curve. And it is rare for any of us to have that knowledge or any evidence that this might be true.

[humanbean]

I just found this post on a forum from several years ago, listing various references referring to optimal ferritin levels. I have no idea how many of the links within it will still work, I haven't tried them :

boards.fool.com/good-ferrit...

Hope it is useful.

[haggisplant]

Thank you very much for the above post.

I think what I'm finding is - as with thyroxine - there's a delay to actually feeling better. Muscles regrowing/ cells turning over etc. I guess it takes a month to grow a new skin so similar for rest of body I guess!