Following continued hair thinning/loss I had an iron test at the end of July with the results as follows -
Transferrin San 49% (16-50) comments were - Consider Haemochromatosis if >40% in females. Ferritin was 142ug/L (15-200) on the same date. My previous test at the end of April was 40% and 118 for Iron and Ferritin (same ranges).
Between the two tests I made some supplement changes I started taking Thorne Basic B, 1 capsule daily, stopped taking selenium as it was clear I was overdosing, started taking zinc and also amino acids.
My GP made no mention of the test results. Do you think I need to pursue the haemochromatosis comments. No improvement in hair thinning by the way but nails seem less brittle and ridged.
Any insights would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Piglet1956
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We have received further information the lab about ferritin reference ranges. They confirm that they are sex dependent up to the age of 60, then beyond the age of 60 the reference range is the same for both sexes:
Males 16-60: 30-400 ug/L
Female's: 16-60: 30-150
Both >60: 30-650
The lower limit of 30 ug/L is in accordance with the updated NICE guidance and the upper limits are in accordance with guidance from the Association of Clinical Biochemists. ‘
Thank you SlowDragon. Yes, been post menopausal for a good while now 🤯 I thought ferritin levels looked fine - I was more concerned about the Transferrin. Does the new information about ferritin ranges apply to Transferrin too?
• Low in range indicates lack of capacity for additional iron
• High in range indicates body's need for supplemental iron
...
Saturation
• optimal is 35 to 45%
• higher end for men
• to calculate divide serum iron by TIBC
• minimum saturation of 30% required to successfully treat with T3
• Low, beginning doses of T3 can be started with saturation at 25%
...
My previous test at the end of April was 40% and 118 for Iron and Ferritin (same ranges).
Could you write these out individually please, with each result and range on its own line, for your current results and previous results. I don't understand your iron result of 40% or 118. They look like a saturation result and a ferritin result, neither looks like an iron result.
Thanks for your reply humanbean. You are quite right that Transferrin san was a typo - should have been satn which I now realise means saturation. I don't really understand the difference between them all which has resulted in this confused post.
I’ve had a look at the really useful page you gave me the link to and I now get that they are all different measures.
July 2023
Serum Iron 22 (10-30µmol/l) 60% of range
TIBC 45 (45-72 µmol/l)
Transferrin satn 49% (16-50)
Ferritin 142ug/L (15-200)
April 2023
Serum Iron 18 (10-30µmol/l) 40% of range
TIBC 45 (45-72 µmol/l)
Transferrin satn 40% (16-50)
Ferritin 118ug/L (15-200)
So it looks like serum iron is currently OK
TIBC looks OK
Saturation looks HIGH
Ferritin at 69% of range is neither low nor high so although Transferrin is above range at 49% haemochromatosis is not indicated as ferritin not high also.
I hope I got it this time and thanks for the education humanbean.
According to the link I gave in my previous reply :
Serum iron
• 55 to 70% of the range
• higher end for men
Your serum iron, at 60% through the range, is already optimal.
...
TIBC (total iron binding capacity) or Transferrin
• Low in range indicates lack of capacity for additional iron
• High in range indicates body's need for supplemental iron
Your TIBC being at the bottom of range suggests that you lack capacity for additional iron - but then your other results suggest you don't need more iron anyway, so this is the result you would expect.
...
Saturation
• optimal is 35 to 45%
• higher end for men
Your saturation, at 49% through range, is a tiny amount higher than optimal for women but is still within range. With your other results being good I wouldn't worry about your saturation, but it would be worth keeping your eye on it.
...
Ferritin
• (1) Low level virtually always indicates need for iron supplementation
• (2) High level with low serum iron/low saturation indicates inflammation
or infection (2)
• (3) High level with high serum iron and low TIBC indicates excess iron
• (4) Over range with saturation above 45% suggests hemochromatosis
None of the above comments on ferritin suggest you have a problem with your current level.
(1) Your ferritin level is not low.
(2) Your ferritin level is not very high in range and your serum iron and saturation are not low, so this is fine.
(3) Your ferritin, at 69% through the range , is not particularly high. Your serum iron is optimal and your saturation is in range (just) so, this is fine too.
(4) Your ferritin is not over range, so is not suggesting that you have haemochromatosis.
I'd say that your iron and other related results are currently very good overall.
...
One question though...
Are you supplementing iron?
Your results in July 2023 are substantially higher than those in April 2023. If you have been supplementing iron then you might want to drop your dose substantially to maintain your levels where they are, rather than increasing your iron and other results further. Or you might want to stop supplementing altogether.
I used to supplement to raise my iron, but I'm post-menopausal and eventually I had to stop taking iron altogether because my levels were rising higher than desirable. My results fluctuated a lot after stopping, but eventually settled at a level I'm happy with. Hopefully this will happen for you too, although if you are still having periods it may be hard to get and keep good results without supplementing, even if you only need a very small dose.
I'm not supplementing with iron. However I take 1 Thorne basic B capsule per day. The July bloods were taken unexpectedly so I'd not stopped biotin/Thorne Basic B for a week prior to the test as I would have done for the April test - I wonder if this had something to do with it
Thanks again for your very thorough reply. Its good to know levels are good and I will keep an eye on transferrin satn (now that I know what it is 🤣)
the Recommended Dietary Allowance is 75mg of vitamin C per day. So if you are taking a lot more than that you might want to cut your tablets in half or quarters and see what effect that has.
If your iron continues to rise then you might want to look into eating more iron inhibitors in your diet. Some are listed on this link (scroll down the page) :
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