Am I overmedicating with iron? Need help.

[Natab1]

Hi, I am worried I am overmedicating with my iron supplements. I had a blood test done and it came back with high levels of transferrin saturation:

Serum iron-30.6 (11-36)

Ferritin-61 (14-148)

Serum TIBC-53.3 (53-85)

Transferrin saturation -57.4 (20-40)

I am wondering if I should stop my supplementing with iron. I am also worried if I stop completely though, that my iron and ferritin will drop again. I was supplementing with 5 tablets of 20mg iron tablets daily ( which I reduced to 4 tablets 2 months ago) plus lactoferrin for faster absorption. I was wondering if maybe the lactoferrin made my transferrin saturation so high? Before I started supplementing with iron tablets, my blood results were:

Serum iron-3.2 (11-36)

Ferritin-7 (14-148)

Serum TIBC-82.8 (53-85)

Transferrin saturation -3.9 (20-40)

I have Graves disease with total thyroidectomy. Thank you for any help.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

I have often pointed out that anyone who becomes iron-deficient has to look to the cause. If the cause has not been eliminated, it is so very easy to end up on the perpetual cycle of supplementing - becoming replete for iron - stop supplementing - becoming iron-deficient...

At its basic level, if you lose more than you absorb - that is what will happen. The question being how long the cycle will take to repeat.

You obviously are thinking in this direction.

I do not have any specific suggestion beyond agreeing that you probably need to reduce your intake. And you definitely need to keep testing.