Iron deficiency anemia is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world. It is also one of the most missed in primary care, because the early symptoms map almost perfectly onto the things we already attribute to busy lives: fatigue, irritability, poor concentration, and poor sleep.
Iron deficiency anemia affects roughly 1 in 5 women of reproductive age, but it’s often dismissed as fatigue or stress. A physician’s breakdown of why diagnosis lags, and what evidence-based screening looks like.
