I had some blood tests done recently, off the back of a two-week-long period. I'm late 40s, so probably perimenopausal with whacky hormones, but the doctor thought the two-week thing was worth checking out.
The results were almost all normal, except for a iron level of 9.5. The lower threshold of normality for a woman is about 12. So I'm technically anaemic.
The thing is, I feel ok. I'm vegetarian, train about 5 - 7 hours a week. I can still train reasonably hard (for olympic distance). Sometimes I'm a bit breathless when resting and fatigued, but otherwise I'm not aware of any symptoms.
For all I know, I could have been like this for years.
Are iron levels like this common? Are they more common in female athletes? - i.e. is there any correlation with training? Has anyone here had this experience, and how did you deal with it? I guess I need to sort it out before the racing season starts in May.
I'm not going to take iron pills. The last time I did that, 15 years ago after the birth of my first child, I had an experience in the bathroom that was worse than giving birth.
The results were almost all normal, except for a iron level of 9.5. The lower threshold of normality for a woman is about 12. So I'm technically anaemic.
The thing is, I feel ok. I'm vegetarian, train about 5 - 7 hours a week. I can still train reasonably hard (for olympic distance). Sometimes I'm a bit breathless when resting and fatigued, but otherwise I'm not aware of any symptoms.
For all I know, I could have been like this for years.
Are iron levels like this common? Are they more common in female athletes? - i.e. is there any correlation with training? Has anyone here had this experience, and how did you deal with it? I guess I need to sort it out before the racing season starts in May.
I'm not going to take iron pills. The last time I did that, 15 years ago after the birth of my first child, I had an experience in the bathroom that was worse than giving birth.