Women’s Iron Deficiencies Frequently Misdiagnosed

[deirdre]

It’s not about that female thing, or at least rarely so.

86% of the time when it was diagnosed as menstrual bleeding, the cause of the anemia was actually gastrointestinal bleeding.

Note that taking iron supplements doesn’t cure your gastrointestinal lining; it’s a bandaid for the wrong problem.

Also, if you’re low on ferritin (iron transport protein), you can actually directly supplement it, which is what I do. (For vegetarians and vegans, sorry, it’s an animal protein, so there is no animal-free option for that particular supplement.)

Originally published at deirdre.net. You can comment here or there.