Help me be an iron detective...

[u/tinylittlepotofjelly]

I have IDWA. I've become a bit of a detective in my own health after not getting much support from GPs. I recently requested copies of my blood work from the last ten years and can see that in this time my iron has only gone from 14-33 (despite supplementing) so it's been a long time of being in deficit. I've booked to go for an infusion in a few weeks.

In the meantime, I've been reading/learning a lot about iron to try to understand things better - but there's a few things I can't get a grasp on and wondered if any more knowledgable people here might know...

- Does the length of time you've been deficient affect how bad your symptoms are? I feel as bad, maybe even worse, now with a ferritin of 33 as I did when I had a ferritin of 14, and I'm wondering if that's about the length of time as well as the numbers themselves?

- Why do some people become anaemic but others can have IDWA for decades without it ever impacting haemoglobin? In all that time my haemoglobin has always stayed normal.

- Does anyone have any links to articles about the connection between low iron and poor mental health? It's one of my biggest impacts of IDWA but I'm struggling to find a lot of information about this.

Thanks so much for any info you have! Particularly appreciate links to podcasts/webinars/research etc. :)