Ferritin At Ten

I am 48, I have run 23 marathons, and I did everything right. My doctors kept telling me I was fine. So I stopped waiting and got comprehensive bloodwork that tested 125 biomarkers instead of the usual handful.

The results finally told the truth, ferritin at 10, bone density at the 11th percentile, an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of nearly 10 to 1, and a genetic cardiac risk factor called Lp(a) that nobody had ever told me about.

I also share what changed when I finally found a menopause specialist who actually listened. If you have ever been dismissed, told you were fine, or felt like you were fighting alone...you are not.

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"I decided to stop performing and start telling the truth."

Transcript

Too Young To Feel Old

Jama Pantel 0:00

My country may show a little bit here, but you know that song by Garth Brooks? I'm Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old? Yeah, that's been my theme song lately, and the title I've been referring back to over and over again at this stage. I'm forty eight years old, I've run twenty three marathons, and I've done everything right. And yet I feel terrible. And my doctors kept telling me I was fine. So I decided to find out for myself. Hey y'all, it's your podcast Bestie Jama again, and if you listened to last week's episode, you know I left you on sort of a cliffhanger. Four years of injury, four years of normal for your age, and then on Valentine's Day in 2026, my body finally said enough. This is the episode where I tell you what we actually found out and what I did about it. So after february fourteenth, I knew I was done waiting for the system to give me answers.

Choosing Comprehensive Biomarker Testing

Jama Pantel 1:03

I've been talking to friends for a while about all of this. Many of them had been telling me to get my ferritin tested specifically, and hormones, of course, because that kept coming up too, because I am that age. And then social media does what social media does. It stalked my conversations, and started serving me ads for function health. Which honestly fair, because I looked into it, I did my research. There are a lot of options out there for comprehensive testing, but I decided to go with function health. They test 125 biomarkers, my regular doctor tested maybe a dozen. The difference in what those extra markers revealed was everything.

The Results That Changed Everything

Jama Pantel 1:50

Let's start with ferritin. I was not surprised it was low, I had been asking my doctors to check my iron for years. Here's the thing though, they kept checking iron, not ferritin. Those are two different things. Ferritin is the stored form of iron, and stored iron is what your body actually runs on. The minimum ferritin level should be around seventy. For a marathon runner like myself, it should be closer to a hundred. Mine was ten. I had been losing hair for years now, taking a prescription for hair loss, knowing in my gut it was something more, not just age. Confirmation is not always comforting, but it is always better than being dismissed. The omega three result did not surprise me either once I saw it. I don't eat seafood, I'm a lifelong vegetarian. I get some omega threes from flaxseed and chia seeds, but honestly, not nearly enough. I don't think it's possible to eat enough of that. So my omega six to omega three ratio was nearly ten to one. What that means is I had a pro inflammatory environment living inside my body every single day. I was not looking for this one, but the moment I saw it, it did make complete sense. So this one was shocking though. Again, I am forty eight years old, and my bone density is in the eleventh percentile. My mom had gone through breast cancer and she told me get your bone density checked now while you still have time to build it back up. Don't end up like me. So I listened, and it turned out she was right. Scary, but I found out at forty eight, not sixty eight. There is still time and that matters. And then there was one thing that I was completely unprepared for lipoprotein A. Most people had never heard of it. I certainly hadn't. It is a genetic cardiac risk factor. Mine came back at one hundred seventy. Very elevated. Nobody in my family has had heart issues that I know of. There was no reason for me to even be looking for this one. And here is the hardest part. There's not much I can actually do about it. It is genetic. It has been there my whole life, and nobody ever told me. I'm a perfectionist, as I've said over and over again, I want to fix everything. Sitting with something I can't fix is its own kind of grief. I asked a lot of questions about that one, and then I went straight to my family group chat and told everyone, because if I have it, they might have it too, and they deserve to know that. When

Dismissed Again By Primary Care

Jama Pantel 4:59

I got all of these results, I made an appointment with my primary care doctor as fast as I could. I walked in with a ferritin at ten, and I was told take some supplements, you'll feel fine, nothing we can do. Ten is not normal, y'all. Seventy is the minimum, one hundred is where a marathon runner needs to be. I'm not gonna lie, I cried there in the doctor's office. Being dismissed again after four years of the exact same thing was the nail in the coffin for me. I am done with that system of doctors. I am finding my own people now. And then I did find my people, or I'm starting to.

Finding A Menopause Specialist Who Listens

Jama Pantel 5:46

Live HRT in Austin, a menopause society certified provider was who I went to first. Someone who listened, someone who looked at the full picture, someone who said, Yes, this is not right, and here is what we're going to do about it. A referral to a hematologist for my ferritin, confirmation that my hormones were off, a real plan. Estradol gel, progesterone, testosterone gel. One appointment after years of being dismissed, one appointment with the right person changed everything. That should not be remarkable, but somehow it is.

Perimenopause Relief Mixed With Grief

Jama Pantel 6:28

So getting confirmation of how far along in perimenopause I actually was, it was a relief and grief at the same time. Nobody prepares you for this transition. Everyone talks about growing up, puberty all the firsts, all the milestones. Nobody talks about this part, about what it actually does to you, and how hard it is to sit with. I know aging is a blessing, getting to do it is a blessing, but nobody prepares you for this part of it, and that is part of why I am talking about it openly.

Why You Have To Advocate

Jama Pantel 7:07

I know not everybody is the same, but now here's what I want to say about function health really quick. It is not a perfect answer. The perfect answer would have been my actual doctors running these tests, reading these results with me, connecting the dots. That is the world we deserve. It is not the world most of us are living in right now. Because here's the truth. A doctor's job is to keep you alive, but alive and actually living a good life are two very different things. You should not have to fight this hard for your own health. But until the system changes, nobody is going to do it for you. So you need to do it for yourself. I started progesterone, estrogen gel, and testosterone gel. I have a hematologist appointment scheduled. I am finally moving the needle. And for the first time in a long time, I am hopeful. Always a work in progress, but progress is the point. More of this story is coming in the next few episodes because there's a lot more to unpack. But for today, that's all I've got.

Hope And What Comes Next

Jama Pantel 8:24

If any of part of this resonated with you, if you've ever been dismissed or told you were fine or felt like you were fighting alone, you are not alone. I will see you next Tuesday, and if you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to Jama Pantel: Unfiltered wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review. It really does help more women find the show. You can listen on Apple, Podcasts, Spotify, or on my website, jamapantel.com under the unfiltered tab. Alright, bye for now, y'all. Until next week.