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Nutrient Status · Marker 01

Ferritin · Ferritin

Ferritin measures how much iron your body has stored. It's the most useful single number for iron status.

Educational, never diagnosticReviewed Mar 30, 2026

Common reference range

50–150 ng/mL

Worth watching
Below 30 ng/mL
Population median
62 ng/mL
Units
ng/mL

Your record always keeps the range printed on the report the result came from, which can differ from the range above.

Why it matters

What Ferritin tells you.

A 'normal' lab range can still leave you short. Below 50 ng/mL, fatigue, poor exercise tolerance, and hair changes become common, especially in women.

A ferritin value inside the laboratory reference range does not mean the iron stores supporting your physiology are adequate. The lower bound of most assays sits between 12 and 30 ng/mL. The threshold below which fatigue, exercise intolerance, and hair changes become likely sits closer to 50.

If energy is the symptom and ferritin is below 50, treat the iron status before reaching for any other intervention.

What the record reads

The direction, not one number.

Whether your stores rise into a healthy range and hold there over months.

Ferritin · ng/mL · six results

Illustrative series

Once you file two results, the record compares them to each other rather than to a population average, and names the report each value came from.

What can influence it

The things that move Ferritin.

In rough order of effect, and read alongside your own history rather than on their own.

  1. 01

    Dietary iron quality

    Heme iron from animal sources is preferentially absorbed.

  2. 02

    Menstrual losses

    The single largest driver of low ferritin in premenopausal women.

  3. 03

    GI absorption

    Celiac, H. pylori, and PPI use all impair absorption.

  4. 04

    Inflammation status

    Ferritin rises non-specifically during inflammation; interpret with hs-CRP.

Daily things that show up here

  • Eat heme iron (red meat, sardines)
  • Pair plant iron with vitamin C
  • Avoid coffee or tea around iron-rich meals
  • Discuss menstrual losses with your clinician

In your record

What happens when a Ferritin result arrives.

The same four steps for every result, whether you upload a report or type a value in by hand.

  1. 01

    Filed to its date

    The value is stored against the day it was drawn, with the report it came from kept alongside it.

  2. 02

    Named and normalized

    Ferritin is recognised as one measure, so the same marker from two labs joins one series.

  3. 03

    Read in plain language

    You see what it measures, whether it sits in the printed range, and what usually moves it.

  4. 04

    Shared only if you say so

    A clinician sees this result when you grant scoped, expiring access, and the view is logged.

This page is educational. It does not diagnose, and it does not replace a conversation with a clinician who can see your history.

Where to go next

  • Start with one report

    Upload a single lab report and Ferritin is filed to its date, named and read back in plain language.

    Create my free record

  • Find someone to read it with

    The directory opens filtered to clinicians who work with nutrient status markers.

    Verified clinicians

  • Read the evidence

    The reading list opens searched for Ferritin, with every study linked back to its source.

    Studies on Ferritin

Read alongside

Other nutrient status markers.

Further reading

Longer pieces on this marker.

References

Where this comes from.

  1. Soppi ET. Iron deficiency without anemia, a clinical challenge. Clin Case Rep. 2018;6(6):1082-1086. DOI

Reviewed by Dr. Olivia Tan, MD · Hematology · Last reviewed Mar 30, 2026