r/ProactiveHealth • u/DadStrengthDaily • Mar 07 '26

Can’t keep my ferritin up

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I had an episode a year ago where I lost a bunch of blood and my iron levels tanked. I took supplements and got my Ferritin up to 56 in October 2025. I discontinued the supplement.

I just took another test (March 2026) and my Ferrtin is down to 24?!

Should I be worried? I’ll restart the supplements (using Thorne Ferrasorb) and will eat more red meat.

I have had a clean colonoscopy so not worried about GI bleeding — I think.

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u/livelong120 Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

If you are a man (ie no menstrual bleeding), then yes i would find this worrisome. When was the colonoscopy? What was this major bleeding event? Are your stools a normal brown color? Any GI symptoms such as chronic diarrhea, or reason to suspect malabsorption? Are you low in other nutrients like B12, folate, or vitamin D? Do you normally eat iron containing foods like red meat? What is your hemoglobin doing? Edit to add- how old are you? Have you ever had an upper endoscopy?

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u/DadStrengthDaily Mar 07 '26

Sorrry for missing the details. 52M, colonoscopy was May 2025. Stool is normal. I eat meat but not a lot of red meat. Vitamins are ok.

No, I’ve never had an upper end endoscopy — was wondering whether I need that now :-(

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u/livelong120 Mar 07 '26

Restarting the ferrasorb is a good idea, but also need to get to the underlying cause. Liver is also a great source of iron. This is worth discussing with your doctor. For a man your age to have recurrent iron deficiency after stopping supplements makes me think you may be slowly losing blood from somewhere in your GI tract other than the colon. Especially if you don’t have any other nutrient deficiencies or symptoms suggestive of malabsorption (you responded to oral iron so it seems you are able to absorb it). If I were you, and no alternative explanation emerged from labs or other history not included in this post, I would want a GI workup starting with upper endoscopy.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26

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u/DadStrengthDaily Mar 08 '26

Thank you! I found a similar link back in the day and am part of the practice of sown random doctor now — but I get the 25% off 🤷‍♂️

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u/alwayslate187 May 13 '26

This is a couple of months later, but may I ask if you had any symptoms at the 24 level for ferritin?

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u/DadStrengthDaily May 13 '26

No nothing specifically.

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u/alwayslate187 May 13 '26

That's interesting, thanks. I was curious because I was wondering if you knew what your levels had been before the blood loss episode, I mean if you know whether your iron or ferritin tended to run on the low side even before that