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Q: Even though I am only a 25 year old woman, I have rather strong menstrual bleedings and have been feeling very tired over the last few weeks. I went to a doctor, who did a blood test and told me that I have a slight anemia and gave me some iron pills. Could you please tell me something about this type of anemia?
A: Your case is a typical presentation for iron deficiency anemia. Bleeding should always be considered as a possible cause of the anemia when an iron deficiency anemia occurs. Iron deficiency anemia is the most common cause of anemia in the world. The majority of blood iron in the organism is in hemoglobin of red blood cells. Therefore, as bleeding occurs, more and more red blood cells are lost, with concomitant loss of hemoglobin and, hence, iron.
Menstrual loss in women plays a very important role in iron metabolism. The average blood loss during the menses is approximately 50 cc per month. In order to maintain an adequate amount of iron stored in the organism, it is necessary for a woman with heavy menstrual bleed to absorb about 3 to 4 mg of iron from the diet each day. This is in the upper limit of what can be ordinarily absorbed from the diet and, hence, women with this strong degree of menstrual blood loss, will usually become iron deficient.
Typical symptoms of anemia are fatigue, fast heart beat, palpitations, and difficulties breathing during exercise. Treatment of iron deficiency anemia consists in taking ferrous sulfate (iron) tablets. In particular, taking 325 milligrams of these tablets three times a day provides 180 milligrams of iron daily, of which about 10 to 20 milligrams is absorbed.
Updated: 03/07/99
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