Help! My Anemia Is Worse!

[cmorrisaud]

Ok, so I have been gluten-free for almost a year now with mostly positive results. However, I saw my doctor last week and she wanted to check my iron (it was just below normal a year ago). Well, this time is was even lower. She wants me to take iron supplements with orange juice twice a day and recheck in a month. I don't understand it. The cereal I eat everyday is iron fortified. I am eating more meat than I have in my entire life; plus lots of beans and iron rich greens. How can my iron be lower? And, on a personal pet peeve note, why is it considered "normal" for a young female to be chronically anemic?

[Gemini]

Ok, so I have been gluten-free for almost a year now with mostly positive results. However, I saw my doctor last week and she wanted to check my iron (it was just below normal a year ago). Well, this time is was even lower. She wants me to take iron supplements with orange juice twice a day and recheck in a month. I don't understand it. The cereal I eat everyday is iron fortified. I am eating more meat than I have in my entire life; plus lots of beans and iron rich greens. How can my iron be lower? And, on a personal pet peeve note, why is it considered "normal" for a young female to be chronically anemic?

The reason many women get that stupid attitude from the medical community regarding chronic anemia is they always blame it on your period. I was always told it was because I was having heavy periods that I was chronically anemic but guess what? I never had that problem to begin with but they kept patting me on the head and treating me like I was too stupid to remember to breathe! Unless you are hemorrhaging, you are not anemic because of that!

There are other autoimmune issues which are common to Celiacs which may be causing your anemia.

Thyroid problems, rheumatoid arthritis, to name a few and these can cause a person to be chronically anemic. It doesn't take much, slipping into hypothyroidism, to make a person anemic and this comes from personal experience on my part.

I would suggest taking the iron supplement and seeing how it goes after a month. You may also still not be absorbing that well as it can take a long time to heal. A year is a long time but sometimes it can take longer than that to resolve issues. Unfortunately, if the anemia doesn't go away, they will want to scope you. They always do. They will be looking for a GI bleed but you can opt for a stool blood occult test to see if there is any blood in your stool. That should always be the first step and not jump right into a colonoscopy/EGD.

There are many reasons a person can be anemic so relax if you can and slowly go through the steps to figure it out. You may just need a good supplement, on top of all your dietary attempts to correct this problem, for it to resolve. If you are still menstruating, it may take longer to bounce back on this than we older broads! Good luck!