In the interests of being as healthy as I can be, as well as being a midwife who practices what she preaches, I decided to test my ferritin. For curiosity's sake I had my husband’s ferritin checked as well. Getting the lab results was eye opening in more than one way.
I’m not going to share my number, but if I was pregnant and a client, I would need to work on getting my ferritin in a better place. I will be making changes to do exactly that.
What was eye opening to me were the differences between acceptable ranges for women compared to men. Lab results will list a reference range for each test. Reference ranges are determined by sampling 120 individuals who are assumed healthy to determine the upper and lower limits of the reference range. The ranges can vary based on if the lab is using a nationwide sample group, or a local group. They can also vary depending on the age, gender and other factors of the people in the sample group. Doctors tend to rely on the reference ranges provided by the lab to determine if someone has an issue and may not be familiar with functional or optimal ranges.
The laboratory I use shows a reference range of 15-150 for females and a range of 30-400 for males. I was shocked at the significant difference between ranges for men and women! While men have more muscle than women and there is a difference in blood volume of men compared to women (men tend to have just under a liter more blood than women), it’s eye opening to see how vast the difference is. Women of childbearing age have regular blood loss through menstruation, men do not, so if anyone needs to keep on top of ferritin levels, it’s women. The reference range recommendations by the World Health Organization have an upper limit for men of 200, and 150 for women, and a lower limit of 30 for both men and women. Functional medicine providers recommend a lower limit of 70.
Testing ferritin in pregnancy is still uncommon, but it needs to be the standard of care for everyone whether pregnant or not. The lack of agreement on what levels should be highlights a fundamental problem in the medical community. Instead of looking at population averages, we should be looking at functional levels. Once someone gets into the functional range, paying attention to how they feel and are functioning will let providers and clients tweak things further to optimize ferritin at the individual level. That is my goal with every client I serve.
I’m not going to share my number, but if I was pregnant and a client, I would need to work on getting my ferritin in a better place. I will be making changes to do exactly that.
What was eye opening to me were the differences between acceptable ranges for women compared to men. Lab results will list a reference range for each test. Reference ranges are determined by sampling 120 individuals who are assumed healthy to determine the upper and lower limits of the reference range. The ranges can vary based on if the lab is using a nationwide sample group, or a local group. They can also vary depending on the age, gender and other factors of the people in the sample group. Doctors tend to rely on the reference ranges provided by the lab to determine if someone has an issue and may not be familiar with functional or optimal ranges.
The laboratory I use shows a reference range of 15-150 for females and a range of 30-400 for males. I was shocked at the significant difference between ranges for men and women! While men have more muscle than women and there is a difference in blood volume of men compared to women (men tend to have just under a liter more blood than women), it’s eye opening to see how vast the difference is. Women of childbearing age have regular blood loss through menstruation, men do not, so if anyone needs to keep on top of ferritin levels, it’s women. The reference range recommendations by the World Health Organization have an upper limit for men of 200, and 150 for women, and a lower limit of 30 for both men and women. Functional medicine providers recommend a lower limit of 70.
Testing ferritin in pregnancy is still uncommon, but it needs to be the standard of care for everyone whether pregnant or not. The lack of agreement on what levels should be highlights a fundamental problem in the medical community. Instead of looking at population averages, we should be looking at functional levels. Once someone gets into the functional range, paying attention to how they feel and are functioning will let providers and clients tweak things further to optimize ferritin at the individual level. That is my goal with every client I serve.
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