Trying to understand blood test results any feedback would be appreciated.

[Petronelka171p]

Understanding blood test results 29yr female fatigue, feeling sleepy.

[humanbean]

Your results do not have any reference ranges which makes it almost impossible to comment on them.

Wherever you got the results from should be able to supply a printout with the ranges included. If that is not possible then you need to find out the lab which did the testing and produced the results. They may have published their reference ranges online - some of them do. But you would need to find out if they were up to date.

If you can't find the ranges online then you would have to phone or email the lab to ask for the ranges. They may be able to send you a copy of the pathology handbook via email.

Your results picture is on its side which makes it difficult to read. You can edit your post including the picture. Click on the v below the post and you can make any changes you want. I suggest you delete the picture and then replace it with another one you have rotated until it looks right. Then submit/save your changes.

Welcome to the forum.

[greygoose]

Well, a TSH of 1.3 is good, but irrelevant, you need the FT4 and FT3 to know your thyroid status. Ferritin of 40 is too low, it needs to be about 100. The rest you need the ranges for. But a ferritin of 40 would make you fatigued and sleepy just by itself.

[bluebug]

As Greygoose stated the only result that anyone will be able to see that is too low is your ferritin as you haven't included reference ranges.

However the NHS will not treat you for this as your ferritin level is within their reference ranges so you have to treat yourself. Also many doctors don't understand why people need a higher ferritin level than the lower part of the reference range, so if you go and say I read I should take iron tablets to get my ferritin level up they will tell you that as your haemoglobin result is fine you don't need to take anything. They are actually unaware that low ferritin levels, those under 50, are often proceeded within a year by iron deficiency anaemia as ferritin is a storage protein.

The normal treatment recommended is one ferrous fumerate tablet 2 times per day with a vitamin C supplement. You need to take it with water 2 hours away from other food, drink and supplements to avoid the risk of interactions.

You can buy ferrous fumerate from off-prescription a pharmacy such as Boots, Asdas but you will need to tell the pharmacist that you want it because you have been told by a doctor you have low iron. Alternatively you can buy it online from Amazon.co.uk - just make sure the supplier you are buying it from is a pharmacy. The packets come in 24, 84 or 100. You will need the 84.

Be aware that supplements from shops such as Holland & Barrett do not contain enough iron to raise your ferritin levels as vitamin and mineral shops aren't allowed to sell iron supplements that contain more than the RDA which is 15mg. Ferrous fumerate contains about 65-70mg of iron per tablet.

More information here: patient.info/doctor/non-ana...

[humanbean in reply to bluebug]

As well as ignoring ferritin if haemoglobin is in range, if you have the same doctors I do you can have below range serum iron and in range ferritin and they won't treat for that either, nor will they mention it. I only found out because I bought my GP notes.

[bluebug in reply to humanbean]

It's not the "not" treating you that is the problem in some cases they are suppose to monitor it e.g. do repeat blood tests and phone haematology for advice but they do SFA.

[humanbean in reply to bluebug]

That below range serum iron was found in 2010. To date it has still not been repeated. I pay for my own iron testing now because it has a huge impact on how well or ill I feel.

[Petronelka171p in reply to bluebug]

Thank you so much. With regards to ranges that's the only document they gave me. I plan to have another blood test privately as I'm going to my home country for 2 weeks. Thank you

[Petronelka171p]

Can I thank you all for your comments. I appraciate and I'm thankful I found this site. I was not aware how you should not mix the iron supplement with food. Thank you for that advice. I bought ferrous s tablets from pharmacy right before the blood test. I have not started taking them yet until I found out I needed to. Can you recommend good vit c? I had the swason 1000 one. But run out about a month ago. I have been feeling so sleepy. I'm normally not super energised but lately it's been the worst. Also I am 29 yrs old and slim and tall, I rarely eat meat and unfortunately drink loads of coffee daily. From what I see my phosphorus and potassium are slightly out of range. But as I was advised by the gp staff it's not as bad to be considered for any treatment clinically.

[bluebug in reply to Petronelka171p]

Coffee interacts with iron due to the tannins in it. Basically anything with tannins does.

It is advised not to drink coffee when taking courses of supplements specifically iron supplements to minimise the risk of interaction and also as you need to know if they are actually working.

In regards to vitamin C get more of the Swason.

[humanbean in reply to Petronelka171p]

Ferrous s tablets? Are these ferrous sulfate tablets? I'd be wary if I was you. Ferrous sulfate tablets are the least well-tolerated iron supplements there are. Very few people tolerate them. The NHS loves them because they are the cheapest available.

There are loads of different kinds of iron supplements and people just have to experiment to find something they can tolerate.

I agree that in an ideal world you would take iron supplements on an empty stomach. But my stomach and gut were in such poor condition that I never could take them that way, and had to take them with food. It wasn't ideal but I had to get iron into me somehow.

The iron that I took was ferrous fumarate 210mg, 1 tablet, 3 times per day. You can only buy it from pharmacies or online. It is sold in boxes of 84, which is enough for 28 days if you take three a day. (You can always take less.)

Ferrous fumarate 210mg, has 69mg elemental iron (pure iron) per pill. So, taking three a day I was swallowing 207mg iron per day. I would consider that to be the maximum safe dose. For any iron supplement the amount of iron it contains is the important thing.

The other supplements that the NHS prescribe can be found here :

evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/b...

There is another form of iron which can be bought online that is very popular on this forum and that is iron bisglycinate, also known as Gentle Iron. It has substantially less iron in it that ferrous fumarate, but is more often tolerated. It can be bought from Amazon.

Iron supplements usually cause constipation. To offset this people should take 500mcg - 1000mcg vitamin C with each dose of iron. Vitamin C gives people diarrhoea in high doses. The idea is to take enough Vitamin C to stop the iron blocking you up. Vitamin C also helps the body to absorb iron.

[Petronelka171p]

Hi everyone. I am revisiting with updated blood results. They have not listed my iron there not sure why will come back tomorrow to ask for that. I was sent to hospital with high potassium. however after further tests on kidney profile I was sent home. I was unable to test bloods back home too.Any advice on those would be appreciated although as laic I can see not much changed If anything regarding my health I just had more colds/ infections within the last months. Thank you.