Hello,

I had my sleeve done 12/26/14 and it has been a wonderful gift in my life!

I have lost 123lbs and have been able to stay within a 4 pound range.

I am now having my first negative side affect.

I have anemia with low Iron and ferritin levels. I am finding with research that this is a side affect for bariatric surgery patients.

I am able to eat mmeats and other iron rich foods just fine so a bit puzzled as to why this quite large deficiency has occured. A surprise to say the least. All other labs are great.

Looking for input and advice from any one else who has had this same issue. Will be starting a good dose of an iron suppliment. Hope I can tolerate the supliments ok.

Thank you in advance!

Many women suffer from anemia despite eating iron rich foods.

One thing to keep in mind with iron supplements is that your sleeve may mean slow release or timed release meds/pills don't get absorbed as well, so you may need just the regular, non-slow release version of iron supplements.

I find I tolerate my iron supplements just fine. If I am absolutely religious about taking my Feosol and an extra dose of Wellesse liquid iron, I can usually keep myself in the low end range of normal.

Are they looking for any other cause for the anaemia? Heavy periods or bowel problems?

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Are you taking your B12? That contributes to anemia in sleeve patients and once you get back to taking it, it can be corrected fairly quickly. An Iron supplement is also a pretty quick fix. I have never had a blood test that showed I was anemic, and I generally didn't take Vitamins the first 2 years after surgery. Not the greatest plan, but I just tended to forget about them. About 7 months ago (which is about 30 months post-op-ish) I just had no energy and felt crummy. All of my lab work was fine, but I started taking vitamins everyday and despite a few days of being sluggish, I'm better than I was then. My stomach can only tolerate special sensitive iron. I get the Feosol in the purple box, which is specially coated to prevent your stomach from getting upset. I can't even take a Multivitamin with iron in it or I get sick. I also take B vitamins mostly because they give me energy, but it's not like they're hurting the B12 issue either. Usually you want to take the sublingual B12 (it's like $12 in a little dropper bottle at the grocery store) rather than the B-complex pills. Don't start going nuts on vitamins all at once because if one makes you sick, you won't know which one. If you first add an iron supplement, see if it goes well, then add the ones that seem to work for you.

I had my labs done again about 4 months after I had them first tested when I felt crummy and all of my lab values are still exactly where they should be, so who knows if my vitamins helped or not. I feel better and I figure that's what counts.

If you take iron bisglycinate you will not experience black stools or any stomach upset, its a more readily absorbed type of iron...

I have suffered with anemia for years. Do you have heavy periods? That can be a major cause.

Try to find an Iron supplement that works for you - it took me a long time to find one that didn't give me side effects that made me not want to take it. Also, take B12 as mentioned above

Yes, you might be getting lots of iron rich foods, but probably just can't eat enough of them with your tiny tummy now. And is women have it worse as we lose each month.

Good luck!