35F, I've been having extreme fatigue that has made me need to reduce work hours and rearrange my schedule. Feeling awful. I've been seeing doctors for a year to address it and get to the bottom, but I recently found out my grandpa died from hemochromatosis. My sister got tested and is a symptomatic carrier, but doesn't have it. Which I don't understand how that works.
A little back story, I had open heart surgery in late February 2025. Leading up to it I felt awful and for 3 months after I felt the best I ever have in my life. I felt like I could actually take a deep breath. Then I started to feel worse and worse and I'm back to feeling how I was pre-surgery. My cardiologist has ruled out my symptoms being from my operation/heart.
My doctor did an iron test 2 weeks ago:
Ferritin: 30
TIBC: 411
Total Iron: 120
Saturation 29%
Which don't line up with hemochromatosis and she has prescribed iron supplements that make me feel super sick on top of the fatigue. But I'm wondering if I felt so good for those 3 months because of the blood loss I had during my operation and maybe my values haven't increased due to my cycle and diet.
Thoughts?