Anemia Support Group

Anemia (or anaemia), which literally means "without blood," is a deficiency of red blood cells and/or hemoglobin. This results in a reduced ability of blood to transfer oxygen to the tissues, and this causes hypoxia; since all human cells depend on oxygen for survival, varying degrees of anemia can have a wide range of clinical consequences.

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GiveMeWings 02/21/2007

I have been anemic for some time. They test me regulary. I do eat iron rich foods and have added vit c to my diet for absorption, but it does not seem to help. Now they want me to give a stool sample. This is odd to me. Any ideas why this could be?

deleted_user 03/07/2007

When they asked me to do this test, it was because my doctor suspected that I had bleeding somewhere in the GI tract which was causing the anemia. Whether the stool test is negative for blood or not, they may go ahead and order a colonoscopy and/or upper GI endoscopy to look for bleeding. Anyway, that's what it was for me.

Hope this helps.

deleted_user 03/10/2007

Ukelady is right on
The # 1 cause of iron deficiency anemia in men and POSTMENOPAUSAL women is blood loss from the GI tract...this can be upper GI blood loss (gastritis, esophagitis from NSAIDS) or LOWER GI tract (a colon mass, diverticulosis, etc)
This is why they have you doing stool samples..if they are (+) for occult blood you will likely be advised to have endoscopy and colonoscopy...
Dr O.

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