Brief Answer:
not enough information

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

I've seen your complete blood count but unfortunately that's not enough information to estimate your iron stores. Your hematocrit is a little lower than normal and your red blood cells are somewhat smaller in diameter than normal. For a woman in reproductive age the most common cause is by far the menses. Loosing much blood each month may end up in depleted iron stores. The iron content of your food has to be estimated as well. Meat contains most of the food iron in the most easily absorbed form.

In order to determine if you have enough iron in your body or not, you've got to do serum ferritin, total iron binding capacity and serum iron. These three tests will help to clarify the issue. If the iron stores do not seem to be empty then other causes will have to be considered.

I hope it helps!
Kind Regards!

---

Brief Answer:
it's iron deficiency

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for the additional info!

So the tests proved that you don't have iron stores in your body. I've already told you the most likely cause. Significant things to consider include:
- how many days do your menses last
- do you loose a lot of blood during the menses? (blood clots, having to change many times per day, etc)
- do you eat enough meat (red meat at least once per 10 days, poultry at least 3-4 meals per week, fish at least once per week) ?
- do you loose blood due to hemorrhoids or any other cause?

If you can't identify any other cause, then the blood lost during your menses should be the cause.

Kind Regards!

---

Brief Answer:
it could be...

Detailed Answer:
This is a common problem for many women. "Regular" can be defined differently from different women. If you see blood clots and you have to change pads all the time then you're loosing a lot of blood.

Other potential causes of iron deficiency may include urinary tract losses (a urinalysis should be enough to test for this), celiac disease (it requires antibody tests and definite diagnosis requires upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and biopsy), psoriasis (too much iron lost from the skin), malabsorption syndromes (with sticky and smelly diarrhea), etc

Other causes of anemia like yours may include thalassemia minor (although a lower MCV value is expected), hemolytic anemia (serum LDH and a urinalysis may provide clues) and other much rarer causes (like various hereditary anemias).

In your case the almost certain cause is your period. You can ask your doctor to order antibody testing for celiac disease. Keep in mind though that celiac disease occurs in about 7/1000 individuals. In women with iron deficiency the numbers may be higher (close to 2-4%).

What's your doctor's opinion about that? Have you received appropriate iron supplementation? By appropriate I mean at least 4-6 months for oral supplementation (and checking serum ferritin afterwards).

---