I have posted this elsewhere but given Nelson created this forum to ask questions for specialists and I couldn’t find an answer elsewhere here we go.
Myself like many other people on TRT have to donate blood in order to control hematocrit. A lot of times this might lead to low ferritin levels accompanied or not by low serum iron levels. However in my case my serum iron levels are high (above lab range) with low to low normal ferritin and slightly above range % saturation. Looks like other TRT users have this same condition that initially looks puzzling given you would expect serum iron levels to be normal or low in frequent blood donors given you are losing iron every time you donate.
I have spoken to a friend of mine that owns a TRT clinic abroad and he mentioned to me that he sees a lot of people with this some condition at his clinic.
I have done some research and found this and a couple of other papers online:
“The striking biochemical characteristic of superdonors is greatly decreased serum hepcidin, consistent with their need to absorb maximal amounts of dietary iron to replace that lost from blood donation.”
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...8.01823.x/full
TRT patients controlling hematocrit levels through blood donations fall into the superdonors category. Low hepcidin raises serum iron levels and can cause high iron saturation. Looks like this is the answer.
I guess the strategy is to supplement with iron in order to restore ferritin levels and increase hepcidin levels that will then decrease iron absorption and normalize serum iron and iron saturation (at the same time trying to minimize blood donation while keeping HCT under control at safe levels) It might look counterproductive to supplement iron while having high serum iron but this looks to be the approach according to some papers i read.
Worth mentioning that before starting TRT i had a complete iron panel done and all parameters were normal.
Any comments from the experts? Does this explanation for high serum iron with low ferritin make sense? Is this condition (high serum iron) of any concern?
Myself like many other people on TRT have to donate blood in order to control hematocrit. A lot of times this might lead to low ferritin levels accompanied or not by low serum iron levels. However in my case my serum iron levels are high (above lab range) with low to low normal ferritin and slightly above range % saturation. Looks like other TRT users have this same condition that initially looks puzzling given you would expect serum iron levels to be normal or low in frequent blood donors given you are losing iron every time you donate.
I have spoken to a friend of mine that owns a TRT clinic abroad and he mentioned to me that he sees a lot of people with this some condition at his clinic.
I have done some research and found this and a couple of other papers online:
“The striking biochemical characteristic of superdonors is greatly decreased serum hepcidin, consistent with their need to absorb maximal amounts of dietary iron to replace that lost from blood donation.”
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...8.01823.x/full
TRT patients controlling hematocrit levels through blood donations fall into the superdonors category. Low hepcidin raises serum iron levels and can cause high iron saturation. Looks like this is the answer.
I guess the strategy is to supplement with iron in order to restore ferritin levels and increase hepcidin levels that will then decrease iron absorption and normalize serum iron and iron saturation (at the same time trying to minimize blood donation while keeping HCT under control at safe levels) It might look counterproductive to supplement iron while having high serum iron but this looks to be the approach according to some papers i read.
Worth mentioning that before starting TRT i had a complete iron panel done and all parameters were normal.
Any comments from the experts? Does this explanation for high serum iron with low ferritin make sense? Is this condition (high serum iron) of any concern?
