Ferritin, a faithful reflection of iron deficiency in IUD wearers with mild vaginal spotting

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Abstract
In a group of 34 parous women, mean age 36.2 years, fitted with a copperreleasing IUD (18 with Multiload 250 or 375, and 16 with Nova T) the following parameters were assessed before and 4 months after the device insertion: hemoglobin, hematocrit, iron and ferritin. The only complaint of all patients was the shortening of the menstrual cycle, from 28±1.2 to 26.8±1.9 days, and the longer period of days with vaginal spotting (from 3.9±1.1 to 7.1±1.0 days). While Hb, HTC and iron remained within normal limits, there was a drastic fall in ferritin, from 24.2±16.4 to 9.3±8.7 ng/ml (ppp<0,01), lo cual representa un signo de anemia por falta de hierro. La primera medida a adoptar sería una evaluación periódica de la ferritina y, en caso necesario, el tratamiento con hierro. Se recomienda retirar el DIU sólo si la ferritina continúa a un nivel bajo después de una terapia antifibrinolítica, de inhibidores de la prostaglandina-sintetasa y de hierro.