You've always been the active one, rides toward Horsetooth, miles along the Poudre, a full week that never used to faze you. Then the fatigue creeps in and doesn't leave. You're spent by early afternoon, your hair's collecting in the drain, your head won't clear. You mention it, a doctor scans your panel, says your iron's "on the low side," and suggests a supplement. A month on, you're no better.
It gets waved through because ferritin, your iron reserve, can drop into the 15 to 30 ng/mL gray zone while the rest of your bloodwork looks ordinary, and half the time it isn't even measured. Up here, where thin air already pushes your blood harder, a low reserve hits harder than the same number would at sea level. The women who come to us in Fort Collins are usually a few months postpartum or have lost iron over years of heavy periods.
Local OBs are good at spotting the number. Almost none can put an IV in your arm during the appointment and be done. Swallow iron for months and hope your stomach cooperates, which often it doesn't. Or give up half a day to an infusion suite, the drive, the parking, the front desk, the waiting room, usually with a baby on your hip.
It gets waved through because ferritin, your iron reserve, can drop into the 15 to 30 ng/mL gray zone while the rest of your bloodwork looks ordinary, and half the time it isn't even measured. Up here, where thin air already pushes your blood harder, a low reserve hits harder than the same number would at sea level. The women who come to us in Fort Collins are usually a few months postpartum or have lost iron over years of heavy periods.