Iron transferrin and ferritin advice please

[Sailing14]

Could anyone advise if this ferritin result is low, although, in normal range and also the TIBC in the iron transferrin results (this was raised in September on private results).

I don’t fully understand iron results so any advice would be helpful.

Thank you.

Pathology Investigations

Iron/transferrin

Serum iron level 19.1 umol/L [9.0 - 30.4]

Serum transferrin level 3.18 g/L [1.8 - 3.82]

TIBC 71.9 umol/L [45.0 - 72.01

Percentage iron saturation 26.6 %

[FallingInReverse]

are you supplementing?

[Sailing14 in reply to FallingInReverse]

Not at the moment.

To add, I do not eat red meat though.

Thanks.

[FallingInReverse]

As a next step you should increase iron rich foods in your diet with purpose. If eating plant-sources, pair it with vit C to enhance absorption.

In summary, your iron isn’t horrible but it’s just under target for most measures.

Iron: is about 50% through range. Slightly below the ideal target of 55-70%. Not terrible, but room to increase.

Ferritin: We aim to increase ferritin closer to 100 for optimal iron stores. But consider that I (and others here) have had single digits ferritin and right now I am only in the 20’s. So could be worse : ) but work towards 100. Ferritin only increases when iron maintains optimal levels. So increase iron in your diet and ferritin will slowly increase.

Your transferrin levels Close to top range suggests that the iron transport mechanism is functioning properly.. Transferrin is the primary protein responsible for binding iron in the bloodstream and moving it to where it needs to go in the body. There seems to be enough to do that.

Transferrin Saturation Percent: 26.6%. This too is ok, but slightly under where it should be. Needs to be a minimum of 30% and optimally 35-45%. Do not exceed 45%.

Your high TIBC aligns with the body’s capacity/readiness to bind additional iron, which will support your efforts to increase iron intake.

[Sailing14 in reply to FallingInReverse]

Thank you. This is a very informative reply and helps a lot. I am going to increase iron rich foods as suggested and see if this can increase ferritin to help improve my conversion of t4 to t3.