Iron Depletion in Blood related to COVID?

Posted by stellm @stellm, Jun 11, 2021

Has there been any reports of iron depletion in the blood after receiving the Pfizer vaccine?

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@sueinmn

Good afternoon and welcome to Mayo Connect. We are a community of people living with a wide variety of conditions and diseases, trying to live our best lives, and to help each other along the way by sharing our experiences. We are not medical professionals, and cannot give medical advice, but we can tell you what has worked for us, point you to resources, and help you to be and informed consumer and your own best advocate with your care providers.

Can you tell us a little more about what led you to ask this question? Do you have a history of anemia or another blood disorder?
Sue

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The same thing happened to me but with the Moderna vaccine. I am a healthy, half-marathon runner. The day after the first dose, I could not walk a mile. The second dose made me really sick, stuck on the couch for 4 days. I hadn’t been running much due to time restrictions so the anemia was not due to running. I signed up for a marathon and started practicing but my legs felt so heavy and I could not breath. I was having trouble sleeping, heart palpitations, tired throughout the day, and could not do all the activities I used to in a day. It also made me foggy-headed at times. I noticed my lymph nodes were swollen as well, and still are to this day, 7 months after my first dose. I’m August, I started going to my see my doctor and have had multiple blood tests, which confirmed iron deficiency and also high immunoglobulin M. I had an endoscopy/colonoscopy to rule out internal bleeding. I had an ultrasound on my lymph nodes and am now doing a CT on them. My ferritin is still low, my red blood cells are too wide now, and my TIBC is too high, and my IGM still too high as well. I have my energy back but still have a hard time with my breath running less than a mile. When I tell people it happened right after the vax, they always want to try to find another explanation, even my docs who try to point to birth control when I’ve been on bc for 20 years so that answer makes no sense. This needs to be looked into and taken seriously, there is something here….

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I have donated blood regularly for years. This year my iron levels have been dropping significantly, to the point where I cannot donate blood, and my doctor is worried about the continued decline. I received the Moderna vaccine in January and February, and the booster two weeks ago. I have never been anemic, and am otherwise a healthy 68-year-old male, walking daily and lifting weights 3 times a week.

I never thought of the vaccine as possibly being the cause. Then tonight, in talking with a Brazilian, said that in Brazil there is considered to be a causal relationship between the two. That led me to do some research, which brought me here. With all of the anecdotal evidence, why are we not hearing about this? If I had known about this before, I would have delayed my booster until I got my blood back to normal.

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I have no history of anemia, and no underlying health conditions. My labs were totally normal prior to taking Pfizer vaccine. On May 5 I had my annual exam with PCP. Normal hemoglobin, normal hematocrit, normal RBC. On May 7 I got first shot of Pfizer, and second shot on June 2. No major side effects immediately after vaccine. During the summer I started feeling weaker and weaker, could not handle even a 30 min walk, shortness of breath, palpitations, body aches, chest pains, dizziness (near faint spells). Cardiology tests were all normal. Pulmonology tests were all normal. Inflammatory markers were all normal. I am normal weight, eat healthy and take vitamins. Yet I was feeling progressively worse. I did CBC and anemia panel blood test in September - and my RBC, ferritin, hemoglobin and hematocrit were low (for the first time in my life!). Further work up ruled out other types of anemia. I was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia (for the first time in my life). Now I am taking iron pills.
I am not taking a booster shot, and I am reluctant to vaccinate my children. There were no events or reasons (other than vaccine) that would cause me to be anemic and unable to function for six months.

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This is why so many people are hesitant to take the vaccine. It is the unknown and the CDC can't tell us otherwise.

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@stellm

Yes. My husband has never had any history of anemia or low iron. He received the Pfizer vaccine in March. He began feeling more tired over the next two months. He saw his physician and she suspected some type of internal bleeding based on the blood test, He had an upper and lower endoscopy. No internal bleeding was found. They are going to try the camera endoscopy next week. We don't think this is going to reveal anything. His iron, ferritin and red blood cell count is extremely low. The only change in has been receiving the vaccine.

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The exact same thing happened to me - I got anemia - I had to take all kinds of tests and they could find nothing wrong with me at all. I had to take a 360mg dose of Iron every day and I was fine. Now a week ago I took my booster shot and I feeling this anemia again. So I just took an Iron pill, and I will again for a while until I feel better. I am not sorry I took the booster because I believe this anemia will go away like it did before

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@zebramg

I have no history of anemia, and no underlying health conditions. My labs were totally normal prior to taking Pfizer vaccine. On May 5 I had my annual exam with PCP. Normal hemoglobin, normal hematocrit, normal RBC. On May 7 I got first shot of Pfizer, and second shot on June 2. No major side effects immediately after vaccine. During the summer I started feeling weaker and weaker, could not handle even a 30 min walk, shortness of breath, palpitations, body aches, chest pains, dizziness (near faint spells). Cardiology tests were all normal. Pulmonology tests were all normal. Inflammatory markers were all normal. I am normal weight, eat healthy and take vitamins. Yet I was feeling progressively worse. I did CBC and anemia panel blood test in September - and my RBC, ferritin, hemoglobin and hematocrit were low (for the first time in my life!). Further work up ruled out other types of anemia. I was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia (for the first time in my life). Now I am taking iron pills.
I am not taking a booster shot, and I am reluctant to vaccinate my children. There were no events or reasons (other than vaccine) that would cause me to be anemic and unable to function for six months.

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Same things happen to me after I took my Moderna Covid shoots but not as drastic - just had the iron deficiency anima- first time in my life too-took the Iron and it went away. I just took the booster, and I am beginning to feel the same way once again. I just took an Iron pill - which I had stopped. I am believing that this will help me return normal as it did before

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@quimbie

This is why so many people are hesitant to take the vaccine. It is the unknown and the CDC can't tell us otherwise.

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Exactly! Anemia is serious enough unknown. What else is unknown? Is it worth risking our children’s health?
People just don’t want to be guinea pigs. Especially since vaccinated people get covid anyway, and those without underlying serious conditions may choose to develop natural immunity.
For instance, I am HLA-b27 positive. There were no studies before rolling out mass vaccination on how this vaccine interacts with those predisposed to immune over response to vaccine. Yet I had history of other vaccines contraindication in childhood.
Most people who are hesitant are not against vaccines as such. We just want to know all the risks and benefits, which is not possible in case with rushed blanket vaccination against COVID-19.
Doctors don’t answer any questions. It was not my doctors who ordered the anemia panel test. I went to a private lab and paid for it myself. And then went to doctor with the obvious results. Prior to that doctors were listening to my complaints and saying: “well, maybe it is vaccine - we don’t know anything about its longer term side effects”.
What about those people who don’t have time or ability to research? Those who can’t pay for lab test or doctor visits? How many people are walking around not knowing they have anemia after the “safe” vaccine? And the consequences of untreated anemia could be fatal…
We are not against vaccine. We just don’t want to be part of the experiment. Science based vaccine is not the one with 30,000 people in trial, and then forced on millions indiscriminately.

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@sueinmn

Good afternoon and welcome to Mayo Connect. We are a community of people living with a wide variety of conditions and diseases, trying to live our best lives, and to help each other along the way by sharing our experiences. We are not medical professionals, and cannot give medical advice, but we can tell you what has worked for us, point you to resources, and help you to be and informed consumer and your own best advocate with your care providers.

Can you tell us a little more about what led you to ask this question? Do you have a history of anemia or another blood disorder?
Sue

Jump to this post

I am going through the same thing. Vaccines in March and April with no history of anemia. I donate blood regularly and when I went to donate in mid-May my hemoglobin was low. I upped my iron-rich food and added iron supplements.

When I went back at the end of May to donate my hemoglobin was high enough to donate but I ended up in a cold sweat and passing out while donating. My PCP sent me to Gastro, I had an Endoscopy, colonoscopy, camera endoscope and they found nothing.

My doctor says my CBC looks like I stopped eating red meat entirely, which I have not done at all, I love red meat. I am now prone to dizziness even with iron supplements. I cannot do a lot of things I used to do because I am always short of breath now.

For the first few weeks after the blood donation, I would get dizzy and just blackout, so much so my husband wouldn't let me drive. I can drive some now, staying close to home, on surface streets with a speed limit under 35. Thankfully I can get to work and within those limitations and all my shopping is done online and delivered now so I do not blackout in public.

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@sueinmn

@maitri, @stellm & @trieste -
This is an interesting issue - I have a few questions for each of you, as we all look for answers about these new vaccines.

As I said in earlier posts, I have looked at both VAERS (the place to report reactions) and everything I could find through research, and this is a completely unreported issue to date. Additionally, my daughter a Covid health/triage nurse for a large health system has not heard of it either.

- Did you report the reaction where you received the vaccine or to your doc, so it could be recorded in VAERS?
- Were your low blood counts found as the result of your feeling ill after the vaccine, or during routine blood tests during other health care?
- Have the counts been repeated to see if they have improved?
- What did the doc have to say?
- Are you able to see your blood test results over time, to see if this is part of the normal fluctuations we all have?
- @trieste Did you or your husband have any other symptoms?

Sorry for the long list, but it certainly is curious that we have not seen any reports since Day 1, and would love to improve our knowledge of what is going on.
Thank you!
Sue

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HI Sue, I have Haemochromtosis (HIGH IRON), I regularly have blood work done, I always have high iron and iron saturation, since AstraZeneca my levels of iron ferritin and iron saturation have dropped well below the normal range and I am now moderately iron deficient and anaemic.
My bloods were done 4 weeks before and after COVID injection
My bloods are done every month and therefore I know I have never had low iron in the last 10 years or low iron saturation

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Both my daughter and I had our 1st covid vaccination and got extremely unwell. After having bloods done it seems our ferritin had plummeted. There is definitely a link between vaccination and ferritin but there seems to be a link between covid 19 imfection and ferritin also. Our drs have no idea as this is all new territory and still all a big trial. But I've added our experience because I think it's important and warrants investigation reading that others are also having this happen.

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