Has a doctor ever looked at your labs, told you “your iron is fine,” and sent you home while you’re still exhausted, losing hair in the shower, and dreading your next heavy period? Okay girlies, let’s talk about it. Welcome to The Iron Files, my brand-new deep-dive series on iron and the minerals that help it do its job. We’re starting with ferritin because every friend, neighbor, and client I've talked to lately has low ferritin on her labs. Me included. I’ve been working on mine for the last three or four months, and my energy is finally showing up again. Copper, vitamin A, vitamin D, and zinc are coming too, and we’ll talk about how they all play together with iron. Ferritin is your iron storage protein, aka your reserve tank. Your serum iron can look totally fine while that tank is running on fumes, which is how so many of us hear “you’re fine” while we feel like a phone at 3 percent. Grabbing an iron supplement doesn’t always fix it either, and there’s a big piece of the puzzle that almost nobody mentions. Send this one to a friend. Seriously. Someone you love is dealing with this and has no clue, and that might include your kids. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside: Why the “normal” ferritin range of 12 to 150 is wildly wide, and the number I like to see instead (hint: it lives right in the middle)The mineral your body needs to store iron AND pull it back out, and why iron pills alone can have you blowing right through itThe everyday habits quietly draining your ferritin, including birth control you may have stopped years agoThe sneaky symptoms you’ve probably blamed on PMS or stress, like restless legs, heart palpitations, and cold hands and feetHow low ferritin can mess with your progesterone, your thyroid, and your mood in the luteal phaseMy whole food game plan, including the beef liver trick for people who hate beef liver (yes, I’m serious, and yes, I do it myself)Let’s talk about that tired. You went to bed at a decent hour, you’re eating your protein, you’re doing ALL the things, and you still wake up thinking, “Why am I so tired when I’m doing everything right?” When your reserve tank is empty, sleep can only do so much. Throw in thinning hair, icy hands, getting winded on the stairs, and brain fog that hangs around long after your period ends, and you start wondering if you’re just bad at being a grown-up. Spoiler: you’re not. If a doctor has ever told you your heart palpitations or anxiety are “just stress,” this one’s for you too. Maybe you’re eating the beef, pairing it with vitamin C, and keeping your coffee far away from your iron, and your numbers still won’t budge. I see this all the time. Low ferritin almost always has a reason behind it, and once we find the leak, we can stop bailing out the boat every single day. Heavy, clotty, or long periods, years on the pill or a hormonal IUD, calcium or vitamin D taken on their own, undereating, blood sugar chaos, and a gut that isn’t absorbing well can all play a part. Been taking iron for years and still feel meh? Listen up. I explain why copper has to be in the picture for your body to use the iron you already have, and why you can overdo both. Think of filling a gas tank that has a hole in it. You can keep pouring, and it keeps leaking. That’s why I like to see real numbers first, work on it for a while, retest, and then call it done. This is where it gets personal for your hormones. Progesterone production depends on iron. So if you’re white-knuckling through luteal phase anxiety, mood swings, and PMS that keeps getting worse, your ferritin deserves a seat at the table. Your luteal phase is the most honest mirror of how depleted you are, so please be kind to yourself about what it shows you. Low ferritin can also slow your thyroid conversion and mess with the neurotransmitters behind your mood and motivation, which could explain the 9 p.m. phone scrolling while you feel flat and cranky. If heavy periods are part of your story, we go there too. Every heavy period is a big iron loss, and low iron can feed estrogen dominance, which can feed more heavy bleeding, which circles right back around. It’s a loop, and it helps to know where it starts. And can we talk about the hair? When ferritin dips below 70, thinning all over is really common, even when you’ve been told it’s postpartum or your thyroid. I check ferritin every single time a client brings up hair loss. Most doctors will order it if you ask, so keep it in your back pocket for the next time someone says your labs look great while you’re staring at the drain. I’ll also tell you why the labs you’ve already had drawn might be hiding the answer. A basic CBC and a serum iron leave out a lot, and a ferritin of 15 or 20 can land “in range” while you feel terrible. Your ferritin may have never been looked at in the context of your hormones. I walk you through what to look for, what to ask your doctor for, and how long it realistically takes to see a shift (it takes longer than a week and happens sooner than you’d think). Put this on while you’re doing ten other things, because I promise it’s easy to follow. Then go dig out your old lab results and see if anyone ever checked your ferritin. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Simply Nourished Cycles Private Podcast NEED HELP FIXING YOUR HORMONES? CHECK OUT MY RESOURCES: Breakfast Guide Nourish Tracker - Discount code: HAPPILYHORMONAL Book a FREE Hormone Strategy Call with me Grab your Happily Hormonal Quick Start Guide Hormone Imbalance Quiz - Find out which of the top 3 hormone imbalances affects you most! Join Nourish Your Hormones Coaching for the step-by-step and my eyes on YOUR hormones for the next 4 months. Send us a text with episode feedback or ideas! (We can't respond to texts unless you include contact info but always read them) Join us in Safety School for Moms (FREE) right here to make hormone balance, better moods, and better periods EASY. Don’t forget to subscribe, share this episode, and leave a review. Your support helps us reach more women looking for answers. Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine. This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection. If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too! Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass
