19 years
I have minor thalassemia and I'm always tired and don't have any energy even to move although I am not fat, I need your help to solve this problem please
Aug 13, 2014
Being a female of the reproductive age group and an adolescent are, on their own, factors that predispose you to develop anemia (due to blood loss during the menstrual cycle) and possibly iron deficiency, especially if your diet is insufficient in iron. This is obviously made worse by the fact that you have thalassemia minor.
You could benefit from iron supplementation, but first you need to check if you actually have low iron stores in your body by doing the following blood tests:
-Complete blood count to check if there is significant anemia, defined as a Hemoglobin of < 12 to 13 g/dL in women, and it would be expected in your case. Other things we look at are the red blood cell size or volume, which tends to be smaller than usual in people with thalassemia and iron-deficiency (we call this microcytic anemia)
-Iron studies: to check for iron stores level (ferritin), iron level, and total iron binding capacity "TIBC"(how well your RBCs bind iron)
If you do have iron deficiency, you will be given iron tablets to be taken for at least 3 months before doing follow up tests to see how well you're responding to treatment. You can also benefit from eating food items that are rich in iron (red meat but not too much because too much is not good for the heart; turkey, spinach, raisins, dried apricots, broccoli etc).
In addition, thyroid gland decreased function "hypothyroidism" needs to be ruled out as it causes symptoms of fatigue/lack of physical energy, in addition to constipation, dry skin and hair, cold intolerance, and unintentional weight gain despite maintaining the same caloric intake. To rule this out, we do thyroid function tests (thyroid stimulating hormone "TSH, and thyroxine "free T4"). The diagnosis of hypothyroidism is made when TSH is elevated and free T4 is low.
You could benefit from iron supplementation, but first you need to check if you actually have low iron stores in your body by doing the following blood tests:
-Complete blood count to check if there is significant anemia, defined as a Hemoglobin of < 12 to 13 g/dL in women, and it would be expected in your case. Other things we look at are the red blood cell size or volume, which tends to be smaller than usual in people with thalassemia and iron-deficiency (we call this microcytic anemia)
-Iron studies: to check for iron stores level (ferritin), iron level, and total iron binding capacity "TIBC"(how well your RBCs bind iron)
If you do have iron deficiency, you will be given iron tablets to be taken for at least 3 months before doing follow up tests to see how well you're responding to treatment. You can also benefit from eating food items that are rich in iron (red meat but not too much because too much is not good for the heart; turkey, spinach, raisins, dried apricots, broccoli etc).
In addition, thyroid gland decreased function "hypothyroidism" needs to be ruled out as it causes symptoms of fatigue/lack of physical energy, in addition to constipation, dry skin and hair, cold intolerance, and unintentional weight gain despite maintaining the same caloric intake. To rule this out, we do thyroid function tests (thyroid stimulating hormone "TSH, and thyroxine "free T4"). The diagnosis of hypothyroidism is made when TSH is elevated and free T4 is low.
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