Five weeks ago my ferritin was 441, so I donated blood. September 8 I will be donating blood again, with a follow-up blood draw to check my ferritin levels. I’m just now starting TRT. I forgot to mention the ferritin issue to the provider, but will today. Any comments or concerns? Thanks.
Any idea why the ferritin was high in the first place?
Ferritin levels take a long time to build up. You probably want to get your levels checked twice a year or so to make sure they’re in range and donate blood as needed.
Do you have an iron overload disorder? If you ferritin does get too high while on TRT, you may need to get phlebotomy from time to time.
The only thing I can think of is I had been eating fatty steak 5 nights a week. Then, I would often eat hamburger on the weekends. Would that do it?
No because normally your body regulates the iron stores and when it becomes elevated, this is usually iron overload or some type of inflammation as a high ferritin level is secondary to inflammation.
I’m eating carnivore diet and my ferritin levels is in the middle of normal range. Just for comparison.
Crap. Hopefully my primary care nurse has some ideas that don’t involve me taking pharma drugs.
Isn’t there some relationship between TRT and iron loss? It seems I’ve seen some guys comment on having low iron levels while on TRT.
Even if it is not sky high at 441, I´d say it is very very recommended to contact your hematologist in order to determine if you have a blood disorder called Hemochromathosis which is usually a genetic disorder.
If you do, it means your parents are (at least) carriers of this condition and should test their levels.
Ferritin / Iron in excess and not controlled will build up in the organs and lead to issues.
The problem is controled by donating blood often enough to have normal levels.
Out of curiosity, I read somewhere excessive Ferritin will reduce Testosterone levels, so i´d address it prior to TRT.
If the levels are high per se and not related to any condition , you can (and should) lower them to something like 150-200 which can be done naturally by taking a Turmeric supplement.
Google it, you´ll find plenty of info.
Some modern studies are showing iron levels above 100 to be problematic.
My Ferritin is around 270. For a male, the interval goes up to 300.
But I wouldn´t mind at all to have it lowered to 150.
TRT drags my iron down within months and have to supplement, it doesn’t happen to everyone though.