You keep pushing through a tiredness that rest doesn't touch. A walk in Garden of the Gods leaves you more wrung out than it should; your hair is thinning, and by afternoon your focus is gone. When you mentioned it, a doctor glanced at your panel, said your iron was "a little low," and pointed you toward a supplement. Weeks later, nothing has shifted.
A routine draw misses this constantly. Ferritin, your iron reserve, can sit in the 15 to 30 ng/mL gray zone, low enough to level you, while the rest of your bloodwork reads fine, and it's often not even ordered. At the Springs' elevation, where thinner air already asks more of your blood, running those reserves down wears you out faster than the same number would lower down. Most of the women we see here are a few months postpartum or have spent years losing iron to heavy cycles.
Plenty of local OBs will catch the low number at a visit. Very few can actually run an IV in the office to fix it. So you're left with two options, each with its own toll. Oral iron is a months-long grind your stomach may reject. And a hospital infusion suite means giving up half a day, the drive down I-25, the parking, the check-in, the waiting room, usually with a newborn or a full schedule working against you.
A routine draw misses this constantly. Ferritin, your iron reserve, can sit in the 15 to 30 ng/mL gray zone, low enough to level you, while the rest of your bloodwork reads fine, and it's often not even ordered. At the Springs' elevation, where thinner air already asks more of your blood, running those reserves down wears you out faster than the same number would lower down. Most of the women we see here are a few months postpartum or have spent years losing iron to heavy cycles.