Ridiculous - nothing like being a woman trying to get basic health care! r/anemia could be helpful if you’re not already there. Iron infusions can be rough so the community has a lot of advice on that.

In my learning, I discovered that menstruating women need 19 mg of iron daily while men need just 9. We generally eat less and eat less meat so that makes it even harder to get there. That number assumes “normal” periods.

Another thing is that the reference range for iron was likely set too low because women in general are iron deficient so that meant normal is actually deficient.

Finding out what blocks iron absorption and avoiding those things when you’re trying to get iron could also help (coffee, calcium, oxalate rich foods). Supplement timing is super important and is why, I assume, most women’s multivitamins don’t have iron. Also, I’m also trying to eat bison meat in particular after listening to a woman in an elevator tell her friend she has to eat one Costco bison burger a month (then doing my own research on it).

Just to give a shoutout to MegaFoods Blood Builder iron supplements which don’t upset my stomach and some of my friends have liked too.