A few months ago (April) I had the results above via Medichecks.
Last week these were the NHS results:
Serum Iron: 29.5umol/L (14.00 - 30.00umol/L)
Serum Ferritin 22 (13.00 - 150.00ug/L)
Transferrin Saturation 39 (20.00 - 50.00%)
TIBC 76 (50.00 - 72.00)
So according to NHS my iron levels are excellent and my ferritin dire.
There is no way I could rely on the private tests to make a case for help with iron from GP.
I realise it's a few months, but I can't believe my iron levels would have shot up so quickly especially as currently I am completely unable to supplement iron at all due to inflammation and historically have always had low levels.
I don't know if MMH offer iron panels but perhaps if they do their results would correlate better to NHS tests?
Written by
Alanna012
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MMH don't offer an iron panel, their nearest is the anaemia test which includes
Haemoglobin
Ferritin
Transferrin saturation
Active B12
Folate
whereas Medichecks offers the full iron panel same as your NHS test.
I've never been offered an iron panel (or any other nutrient test) by my GP surgery except once ferritin was tested which was a very different result from Medichecks ferritin result done 4 days later with their iron panel.
Were you able to find out why there was such a disparity between your ferritin NHS and the ferritin Medichecks?
No, I didn't bother as I have been doing regular iron panels with Medichecks for a while (always sent to County Pathology lab). The NHS range was different at 15-300 whereas the Medichecks range was 13-150 so not comparable anyway. The NHS result was lower than the Medichecks result in both actual number, even though unit of measurement was the same, and percentage in range. I just don't think you can compare results from different labs accurately, particularly for iron.
When you think about it there are so many ranges for ferritin, some have a different range for females pre and post menopause, and different ranges for males and females, eg
Medichecks and Blue Horizon with County Pathology - 13-150 for females of any age
My GP surgery - 15-300 for all ages both male and female
Medichecks with Inuvi lab:
Males 16-60 years: 30-400 ug/L
Female's: 16-60 years: 30-150
Both >60 years: 30-650
I don't understand why all the different ranges so how can you know which one to trust?
One member went to great lengths a couple of years ago to try and get to the bottom of why the disparity, you can check out her post linked to below, and within that post there are links to other posts she made during her quest to get an answer:
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