40 year old women the most likely to be iron deficient?

Why are 40 year old women the most likely to be iron deficient?

Women around 40 are more likely to be iron deficient than at any other age.

 

Why?

 

This is a time when women are more at risk to have heavier periods because of fibroids or perimenopause. A normal period loses 1 mg per day. A heavy period can lose 10x that amount.

 

Oddly, this group isn’t screened for iron deficiency as much as they should be. ref 

14% of women aged 35-44 have iron deficiency anemia. We can expect 2-3x that number to be iron deficient.

 

If you’re around 40. Get your ferritin tested.

 

NEXT STEP:

Book a Gravity Health Clinics iron infusion eligibility screening, so we can book you in for an iron IV.

Related Posts

We’ve normalized menstrual bleeding to the point that we’ve forgotten it’s a major risk for health problems in women’s daily lives. Missed work. Missed school. Tired days. It’s just a bloody part of your bloody life.

There is a lot of variation between people with how much iron we store in our bodies. Men and Women are different. Asians are different from Europeans. On average women have 3g and Men 4g.

Iron deficiency is a common problem in blood donors. Female donors and repeat donors are most affected by iron deficiency. 92% of blood comes from repeat donors.

There are a number of drug and drug classes that block iron absorption and can directly make us lose iron through blood loss or vitamin deficiencies.

Let’s get straight to the meat. How do we test for iron deficiency in kids and what is the range we’re looking for?

Women around 40 are more likely to be iron deficient than at any other age. Why?

Do you think anemia and iron deficiency are the same thing? Well, so do a lot of doctors. And we’re all wrong.