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Training/racing with low Hb?
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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.
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Re: Training/racing with low Hb? [alexxm21] [ In reply to ]
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Has your OB/GYN ruled out uterine fibroids? that can cause the type of prolonged bleeding you are describing. That bleeding can lead to low iron levels.

No coasting in running and no crying in baseball
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Re: Training/racing with low Hb? [alexxm21] [ In reply to ]
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How were your iron stores? I recently had some blood work done because 5-10 min into working out I would get dizzy/woozy/breathless. My iron was almost anemic, but my iron stores were very low.

I did take the supplements, as my symptoms were concerning me.

Could you just up your intake of iron rich foods?

Was your doctor concerned, what did they have to say about the results?
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Re: Training/racing with low Hb? [edbikebabe] [ In reply to ]
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Many thanks, both of you, for your responses.

I'm having am ultrasound in couple of weeks to check for localised bleeding sources e.g. fibroids. I would be surprised if they find anything though. The 2-week period came out of the blue, following a year or more of scanty and irregular periods. And I had other hormonal-type symptoms, heavy breasts, cramping etc.

Ed, I don't know about my iron stores, as opposed to iron (Hb) levels. How is that measured?

Was my doctor concerned? I don't know. She wrote me a letter mentioning the result and asking me to see her after my ultrasound result,"to see how you are".

I am fairly confident, however, that the doc will not have anything useful to say about iron levels in perimenopausal women athletes. We're a fairly small sub-set of the population, which is why I'm asking here. One internet piece I read suggested that running depleted iron stores because the pounding on the feet destroyed red blood cells - which sounds pretty freaky to me. I was wondering if anyone had experience or knowledge as to if or how training impacts on iron levels/stores.

I will up my intake of iron-rich foods, and will discuss supplementation with the doc when I see her in February. Thanks again.
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Re: Training/racing with low Hb? [alexxm21] [ In reply to ]
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alexxm21 wrote:
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.

My periods got really heavy about 3 years ago, and it turned me anemic, though I don't think my levels were as low as yours. I thought it was my asthma flaring up because I would get breathless going up stairs. I didn't really have any other symptoms, just feeling like I was out of air with any bit of exertion. I was seeing a pulmonologist and everything because I thought my asthma was terrible. I had a uterine ablation for the bleeding and that did the trick. No more anemia, no more breathlessness.
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