Chronic Low ferritin. Need advice from those who have fixed low ferritin.

[Tbaz192]

Not 6 weeks yet.
Will pull in a week or two.

Oh word. Time doesn’t exist in my brain. I forget what day it is.

Hope for good things. I’m pulling some new labs here soon as well.

Copper, ferritin, apob, CRP, cbc, cmp, thyroid. Check off my known issues.

 

[Photon]

Oh word. Time doesn’t exist in my brain. I forget what day it is.

Hope for good things. I’m pulling some new labs here soon as well.

Copper, ferritin, apob, CRP, cbc, cmp, thyroid. Check off my known issues.

Labs came back, but values aren't useful,..

My hsCRP came back at ~11, and my ferritin went from ~100+ to ~700+.
With an elevated hsCRP, the ferritin value is useless.

I don't have an issue with ferritin tho (different from you), my issue is a continuously dropping hgb/hct/iron sat. hgb/hct fell by another .6 and 4 points. Keep this up and my hgb will be <10 in a few months.

It feels like my body is storing all my piggy iron and refusing to convert it to usable iron..it might actually work for you.

I probably need to repull the hsCRP and ferritin..hsCRP seems to fluctuate like..every few days -- kinda useless..

 

[Tbaz192]

Labs came back, but values aren't useful,..

My hsCRP came back at ~11, and my ferritin went from ~100+ to ~700+.
With an elevated hsCRP, the ferritin value is useless.

I don't have an issue with ferritin tho (different from you), my issue is a continuously dropping hgb/hct/iron sat. hgb/hct fell by another .6 and 4 points. Keep this up and my hgb will be <10 in a few months.

It feels like my body is storing all my piggy iron and refusing to convert it to usable iron..it might actually work for you.

I probably need to repull the hsCRP and ferritin..hsCRP seems to fluctuate like..every few days -- kinda useless..

Damn.

I need to pull labs on Friday. CRP as well. See where I’m at. I definitely have to be in better range. Haven’t been supplementing any iron either. Just food sources.

.3ml test cyp twice a week ish, and recently as of two weeks ago 25mg proviron daily for a libido boost.
Had to take some exemestane a few days ago still lol.

Somehow feeling bigger and stronger than I was on blast months and months ago.

 

[TheBeast1]

When I was cutting I was craving steak all of the time. Ended up just doing steak and eggs as my breakfast 7 days a week. Was glorious and amazing.

Discovered I was anemic. Whoops. Before bed I supplement iron and vitamin C. The vitamin C helps with iron absorption. Hasn't been an issue since.

 

[Ateam2023]

This was my latest labs, i have only been on a trt dose , and take 1 iron pill per day, ferritin has climbed from @30 to current level , idk will watch closely how i feel ,

 

[Corduroy]

I haven't seen heme iron supplementation mentioned on this thread. Heme iron is the same form of iron found in meat. One brand is called Proferrin. There's no need to take it with vitamin C and in fact you can take it with food. Minimal drug/nutrient interactions or side effects. It brought my ferritin up from the 20s to the 70s. Of course it can also raise hematocrit just like any other iron supplement.

Also, if it's an option to change your protocol to testosterone cream from a compounding pharmacy, topical T causes significantly less hematocrit elevation for the same level of serum testosterone compared to injections. A 30ml pump bottle of 200mg/ml is a 30 day supply at 200mg/day (equivalent roughly to 20mg/day injection i.e. 140mg/week, so 2 full pumps/day is equal to about 280mg/week of subQ or IM test).

Changing to topical T while at the same time taking 1 Proferrin capsule per day has normalized my ferritin and at the same time lowered my hematocrit from 55 to 49. Of course anyone with Hct/ferritin issues on a more aggressive regimen of androgens is going to need more help than this (like blood donations or therapeutic phlebotomy), but it's possible that donating blood every 2-3 months while at the same time maintaining heme iron supplementation could keep one in the "Goldilocks zone".

 

[Tbaz192]

Yeah,

I haven't seen heme iron supplementation mentioned on this thread. Heme iron is the same form of iron found in meat. One brand is called Proferrin. There's no need to take it with vitamin C and in fact you can take it with food. Minimal drug/nutrient interactions or side effects. It brought my ferritin up from the 20s to the 70s. Of course it can also raise hematocrit just like any other iron supplement.

Also, if it's an option to change your protocol to testosterone cream from a compounding pharmacy, topical T causes significantly less hematocrit elevation for the same level of serum testosterone compared to injections. A 30ml pump bottle of 200mg/ml is a 30 day supply at 200mg/day (equivalent roughly to 20mg/day injection i.e. 140mg/week, so 2 full pumps/day is equal to about 280mg/week of subQ or IM test).

Changing to topical T while at the same time taking 1 Proferrin capsule per day has normalized my ferritin and at the same time lowered my hematocrit from 55 to 49. Of course anyone with Hct/ferritin issues on a more aggressive regimen of androgens is going to need more help than this (like blood donations or therapeutic phlebotomy), but it's possible that donating blood every 2-3 months while at the same time maintaining heme iron supplementation could keep one in the "Goldilocks zone".

True.

I’ve been eating more heme iron, meanwhile not supplementing iron capsules.

Going to pull labs on this very low dose TRT
See if my iron/ ferritin has stabilized from a lower androgen level. Just normal diet normal supplements, before I toss something in there now.

I have the piggy iron injectable just in case lol