Yes, your level is high and dangerous to most major organs in your body. A ferritin level of 1,000 is considered as "critical" and needs immediate intervention. Mine was last measured at near 600 and I am now doing weekly blood donations, which is the only way to reduce ferritin; your body has no way to remove iron from the body. Your doctor may want to get your ferritin to less than 100, maybe even 50, and the only way is blood donations, a lot of them.

Hemochromatosis has two versions; primary and secondary. Primary is genetic and as you have written is not your problem. Yours, and my Hemochromatosis is secondary. In my case, caused by a "fatty liver", but secondary can be caused by other problems such as excessive drinking. I am not allowed to drink alcohol at all and I never drank much in the first place so I am not giving up much. Any alcohol can cause additional liver damage in addition to the damage being caused by the iron.

You need to see a blood specialist, this problem is not something that GPs see much of or know how to correctly treat. My GP even admitted that he just had one other patient with iron overload (common name for Hemochromatosis). However, I replied "that you know of" because he never tested anyone for it. He agreed. Mine was found by my GI doctor.

Sadly, not much is commonly known about Hemochromatosis. Nearly everything that I have learned has been self taught.

If your iron levels continue to increase, you will have more symptoms if you don't already. Your joints will become very painful and you will get fatigue. It sounds like your drinking habits maybe more the problem. This iron will attack your liver. I think you should give the alcohol away. If you wish to survive. Your ferritin level is high. Mine was 2003. It took 18 months and 24 litres of blood to be removed to get mine in normal range. I have HH Homozygous C282Y. Genetic . Do yourself a favour and stop drinking.

Prior to H.H. I was drinking 1 or 2 (or maybe 3) glasses of red wine a night. Once diagnosed I quite. Period. I am now down to 144 and the dr said it was fine to have a glass every other night or so. He said he treats diseases so that we can live and enjoy life. That said, it is wise to limit your drinking and just enjoy one or two here and there.

Thanks everyone. I have given up alcohol completely and feel I can maintain it for the sake of my health. I’ve never found it easy to just have one drink so I’m better avoiding it altogether. I suppose I’ve become dependent rather than alcoholic. Cap6, did it take long for your levels to go down to 144..

gforce17 - I have been very very lucky in that my levels went down quickly. I started phlebs in Oct 17 with a high of 1,200, so in 5 month time they have come down quickly. It hasn't been easy, that's for sure. The chest pains, joint pains, exhaustion. I feel like I have lost 5 months of my life, but... we are getting closer to normal levels. Because of the side effects the dr agreed to only do a half pint of blood every other week and that has helped.
As to the wine - honestly, I haven't missed it at all. Most of the time it doesn't even sound good at all!
I also and diagnosed Celiac in 2010 which puts some food restrictions on me but since we eat paleo it's not really an issue.
Feel better!

Really pleased to hear that you are on the mend. Thanks for your reply!!