The blood tests came back "basically normal," so nobody was worried but you. You are still dragging through the school run down Lancaster Avenue, still losing hair in the shower, still hitting a wall by mid-afternoon that coffee will not touch. Somewhere in there, a doctor said your iron was on the low side and that you should pick up a supplement. That was three months ago, and nothing has changed.
Your iron stores can be low, in the 15 to 30 ng/mL ferritin gray zone, while a routine panel still reads as fine, because ferritin often isn't tested at all. Most of the women we treat in Wayne are a few months past a delivery or have run down their iron over years of heavy cycles.
Plenty of Wayne OBs will catch the low ferritin at a checkup. Very few can actually hang an IV bag in the exam room. That leaves two options, both of which cost you. Oral iron takes three to six months and a stomach that can handle the cramping, which many can't. An infusion suite means a half-day gone (the drive, parking, the check-in line, the waiting room), all of it arranged around a newborn or a work schedule.