I found out I had low ferritin when I went to donate blood in early 2025 and got a letter banning me for a year because I measured at 11. Since then I've been supplementing with Ferrimax and my ferritin has slowly creeped up. I had an iron infusion which almost killed me but I got almost one full bag of iron sucrose out of the three prescribed. Tell me why my ferritin has HALVED since my last blood test!?
Timeline:
May 21 2025: ferritin 18
(Months of inconsistent supplementation)
Nov 19 2025: ferritin 26
(Started supplementing more consistently)
Feb 9 2025: ferritin 41
Feb 27 2025: iron infusion that nearly killed me
Apr 7 2025: ferritin 73 (maybe because of residual infusion iron?)
(rigorous supplementation)
May 5 2025: ferritin 34!?!?!?
Is this a fluke!? I've only had one period (I intentionally skipped most of them with hormonal birth control) since my Feb 9th test and it was last week. My husband and I just started TTC and the last time I had an iron infusion I had a severe hypersensitivity reaction that landed me in the ER so it's not like I can easily do that again, and certainly not while pregnant.
What can cause someone's iron to plummet so severely despite me taking my supplements so consistently!? Yes I already have a doctor's appointment scheduled, I just want to know if anyone else has experienced this or if someone can hypothesize as to what could be going on. I really really don't want to delay our conception planning for this.
EDIT: I should mention that I'm vegetarian and was intentionally on a calorie deficit for the past two years (where I wasn't getting enough dietary iron until very recently), but I haven't donated blood since early 2025. Up until I started my weight loss journey and frequent blood donations I never struggled with anemia.