Iron: Essential for Women’s Health (Part 1)
• Symptoms of low iron
• Risk factors for low iron
• How to assess your iron levels
• Iron in pregnancy
• Recommended intake of iron
All too often women struggle to maintain their iron levels and experience symptoms like fatigue, dizziness, brain fog, irregular or heavy periods or a pale complexion. It’s common for women to experience lower iron levels during reproductive years and pregnancy, as the demands for iron increases considerably during this time.
A normal period is a bleed of about 80mL (16 fully soaked regular tampons or 8 super tampons) per month. Restoring these losses is definitely manageable with the right diet and lifestyle habits. It can become difficult to maintain your iron if:
• you follow a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle
• you experience periods heavier than a normal bleed
• lots of coffee and tea is consumed, particularly with meals
• you experience high levels of stress, chronic inflammation or illness
• a whole foods diet is not followed
• frequent use of medications like those used for reflux, heartburn, gastritis
• deficiencies in other nutrients is apparent
Your GP can test your iron, with several markers used to assess your iron levels.
Serum Iron is the amount of iron in your blood at the time of the pathology test.
Ferritin is the amount of stored iron in the body. When ferritin is low, this is usually the first sign of iron deficiency. Typical ranges are from 50-250nmol/L, however research finds females usually feel best when their range is around 100-150nmol/L.
Transferrin is the iron transportation protein. It is used to measure the capacity for iron to be transported in the blood. When the body requires more iron, the levels of transferrin are increased in an attempt to move more iron around the body. When transferrin is high, this can indicate iron overload. Transferrin can also be high if you use the oral contraceptive pill.
Transferrin saturation is a marker of the amount of iron attached to the transferrin (iron transport) protein.
During pregnancy, the total blood volume can increase by up to 50% to accommodate the amazing changes happening to both Mum and baby. Additionally, iron is essential for thyroid hormone production and DNA synthesis (for the rapid growth of new cells).
The recommended intake of iron during pregnancy is 27mg per day, while 18mg per day is recommended for women of reproductive age. Considering a 100g beef steak contains only 3mg of iron, you can see why iron levels are commonly depleted!
See Part 2 (under construction) for ways to increase your iron levels through diet and lifestyle.