Iron Deficiency in Teenage Girls

 

Iron Deficiency in Teenage girls 

 

One-fifth of the world's female population happens to be adolescent girls. Teenagers in developing countries have an existing disproportionately high prevalence of anaemia. The prevalence in developed countries is estimated to be 9%, while it is estimated to be 43% in developing countries. In this blog, I will be focusing on iron deficiency in teenage girls in Ireland.  

Many Irish teenage girls may be iron-deficient without even realizing it. This is because their menstrual cycle has begun, which causes them to lose blood as well as iron every month. A high-iron diet should be considered at this age. Red/lean meat, raisins, dried beans, tomato sauce, eggs, nuts, as well as other similar foods should be added to the diet. Sometimes, this is not enough to prevent iron deficiency. If they begin to exhibit symptoms such as pale skin, exhaustion, dizziness, light-headedness, as well as headaches, they should see a doctor or GP. In the possibility that they have a deficiency taking supplements without a prescription could be dangerous. There happens to be a variety of iron deficiency treatments available. For centuries, oral iron therapy has been used to treat iron deficiency. Oral iron supplements can have major drawbacks such as nausea as well as epigastric discomfort after consumption. It is suggested that oral iron should be taken with a meal. Parental iron therapy is commonly used for patients with iron deficiency anaemia who have conditions that prevent them from ingesting or absorbing oral iron. High iron requirements and iron malabsorption and oral therapy failure happen to be the three main indicators for parental iron therapy. The most common form of parental iron is iron dextran, which is a dark brown solution containing 50mg iron per ml and is made up of a low molecular weight dextran combined with ferric oxide. Iron dextran should be given intramuscularly, according to the manufacturer. Although the effects of anaemia caused by iron deficiency happen to be well understood, new evidence suggests that iron deficiency without anaemia can have negative consequences in adults, particularly in terms of neurocognitive outcomes. Menstrual blood loss makes iron deficiency more likely in women that are of reproductive age. Extreme blood loss, such as regular blood donation, low bioavailability diets, as well as pregnancy challenges, everyone significantly increases the risk of iron deficiency. Furthermore, the physiological changes that occur during pregnancy have an existing impact on the normal reference ranges used in laboratory testing. The low specificity, as well as sensitivity that belongs to haemoglobin at the same time as a marker of iron deficiency, limits its use. While alternative biomarkers are becoming more popular, interpreting results in chronic inflammation, including that associated with increased adiposity, requires more research. Iron deficiency in females usually starts in their teenage years and if left untreated it could become more serious as they get older, anaemia is an example of this. Iron deficiencies may not appear until women go through pregnancies even though they could have been deficient most of their lives. 

 

Figure 1  Frequency of iron deficiency in female teenagers

 

  

 

References:

 

Carmen Lúcia de Almeida Santos, Iron deficiency during pubertal growth spurt, Pepsic.bvsalud.org :

 http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-12822012000300010

(Accessed 15 February 2022)

 

Coad, J; Conlon, C. (2011). Iron deficiency in women. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, 14(6), pp. 625-634.

 

Rani, PSudha, Chandrakala, A. (2017). Effect of integrated strategy on iron deficiency anaemia among adolescent girls. International Journal of Advanced Research, 12(5), pp. 1171-1174.