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Female
From February until now my hair has gotten extremely thin, my nails look totally wacky (the white part extends way down into my nail bed. They are also very brittle) my menstrual cycle isn't regular, I have constant brain fog, my skin looks orange (even though I rarely go in the sun), my joint hurts (especially in my hands and feet) and on any given day I'm an emotional mess. I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy done and my GI doctor said my villi are all healed from celiac. He also removed some benign polyps. Other than that I was fine. I went to an RA for the high ANA and he tested for every autoimmune disorder under the sun - including lupus - all came back negative. I was literally at my wits end!
My GI doctor mentioned that it was unusual that I had an elevated iron level considering I don't take supplements, I don't eat much red meat, and I menstruate. I didn't consider the high iron, because as a female you are always told you're going to be anemic and you always need iron. He ordered the test for hemochromatosis and come to find out I have the genes from BOTH parents (I'm C282Y Homozygous). Hemochromatosis matches almost all of my symptoms so I'm going to go to a hematologist soon for treatment. I REALLY hope that resolves everything.
I find it so strange that I developed celiac disease and hemachromatosis almost at the same time. Does anyone else have the same thing? I am also curious is this has caused my unexplained macrocytosis since iron plays a large roll in red blood cells. Still not sure why my ANA is so high, but hopefully that will resolve on it's own eventually. I want to he healthy again!
