Consequences of iron depletion on health in menstruating women

Abstract

Objective: To examine the consequences of single iron depletion on health in menstruating women, a common but rarely investigated situation in industrialized countries. Design: We studied data issued from the SU.VI.MAX. cohort via a transversal and a longitudinal (2-y follow-up) approach. Subjects and methods: Iron-depleted menstruating women (ferritin o15 mg/l, n ¼ 472) were compared with iron-sufficient (ferritin 30-80 mg/l, n ¼ 393) menstruating women (aged 35-51 y) in terms of health variables and quality of life (DUKE score) using logistic regression and analysis of variance. Results: The risk of any infection or of specific types of infections was not increased by iron deficiency. Regarding the DUKE health profile, no specific score was significantly different between the two groups: only the scores reflecting 'physical health' (P ¼ 0.09) and 'perceived health' (P ¼ 0.12) showed a trend toward a lower level, while the best score for 'mental health' (P ¼ 0.11) was found in the group of iron-depleted women. The only significant difference between iron-depleted and ironsufficient women concerned memory disorders, which were significantly less common in iron-depleted women, Odds ratio ¼ 0.7 (0.6-0.9; P ¼ 0.03). Conclusion: There is no conclusive evidence that an absence of iron stores has negative consequences; however, we must consider that in the case of a worsening of the iron balance, it may lead to a rapid decrease in the level of functional compounds. Sponsorship: The laboratory Robapharm, Pierre Fabre, France.

No association between iron status and self‐reported health‐related quality of life in 16,375 Danish blood donors: results from the Danish Blood Donor Study

“…As pointed out by the author, one limitation of the study was that the participants were aware of their iron status when completing the questionnaire, and moreover, current iron status was not known. In contrast, Duport and coworkers reported no association between low iron stores and self‐perceived health in a study of 865 participants from France . Likewise, Rangan and colleagues reported that iron deficiency generally was not associated with any nonspecific symptoms or psychological distress among 255 female participants from Australia.…”

Prevalence of Iron Deficiency and Health-related Quality of Life among Female Students

“…Duport, with the SU.VI.MAX. cohort in France studied the relation between iron deficiency and quality of life measured with the Duke profile [21]. The lower trends for physical health and perceived health associated to iron deficiency weren't statistically significant.…”

Iron depletion by whole‐blood donation harms menstruating females: The current whole‐blood‐collection paradigm needs to be changed

“…A number of studies have been performed, mainly on adult women, to determine the effect of iron-deficiency anemia or nonanemic iron deficiency on one's health. These studies have evaluated the effect of these two conditions on fatigue, [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] physical endurance and work capac-T ity, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] restless leg syndrome, [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] adverse events related to pregnancy, [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] and cognitive changes. 12,13,14,15,[49]…”

“…50 Four others studies also reported positive findings, [52][53][54][55] and four studies reported negative findings. [12][13][14][15] Future cognitive studies of subjects with nonanemic iron deficiency should stratify by sTfR to determine whether tissue iron depletion is an important determinant for cognitive changes.…”