Ferritin/Iron Labs

Pharma / TRT Testosterone Replacement
1

So I will preface in saying I haven’t done iron labs in a long time. With that in mind the one time I did them a while back was actually on the lowest dose of T I ever been on. Yes I will do labs next time, but for the time being lets just go off what I have on hand. There can be an assumption my iron labs on average are worse than those since I always run a significantly higher dose.

TIBC 300 (250-450)

UIBC 145 (111-343)

Iron 155 (38-169)

Iron saturation 52 (15-55)

Ferritin 78 (30-400)

Is this possibly my problem on TRT all along? Fatigued from higher doses. Muscle cramps, especially calves at night even if I did not work them. Cracked lips. Easily numb extremities, including pale mushroom tip (lol) on higher dose. Heavy heart beats and rapid shallow breathing sometimes.

I recently started taking ferrous sulfate, and this may be confirmation bias, but I cramp way less now like by a lot. My nightly calf cramps are practically non existent. Some days that I did not take it or dropped dose I noticed that cramping coming on again.

2

I’m not sure what the question is…your iron saturation (I glance at that first with my patients, but appreciate the full panel) is high normal. Ferritin is fine. Its a fickle lab. Changes rapidly/dramatically in response to inflammation.

Were you taking an iron supplement when these were drawn though?

3

Its ok then don’t worry about it.

4

TRT changes my iron metabolism somehow. My ferritin is 198, and if I miss a single iron dose, or take 75% of it, I had problems that day that are clearly the same as when iron deficient.

The symptoms begin within 1-2 hours of taking my Jatenzo, with testosterone peaking within 2 hours of my dosing. These rapid testosterone peaks use up an enormous amount of iron.