Although over one million Australians are iron deficient, many women say the condition is being overlooked by doctors.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics found 40 per cent of girls aged 14–18 years have inadequate iron intake, mostly due to heavy menstruation cycles.

The main symptoms of iron deficiency in women is fatigue and dizziness, this is evident when female University Students complete their studies.

Curtin University student Nini Siddiqua says her symptoms of fatigue were masked from feeling tired and run down.

“There are some people who can just do their assignments in a day and I just can’t do that because I am so tired.”

She says she felt doctors don’t really discuss proper medication options for women with iron deficiency.

“Doctors prescribed me birth control but I felt it was a band-aid solution for the problem and it didn’t really address the route cause.”

Ms Siddiqua is in her final year of studying health and promotion safety and is the former Curtin Health Sciences representative for the Student Guild. She says studying with low iron is very difficult.

“It’s just so hard because it takes a while to concentrate and it’s hard when you are tired all the time,” she says.

As the cost of living crisis escalates, some University students don’t want to treat their condition as it is becoming more expensive.

This is the case for Annalise Peacock a student who has had low iron since high school. The marketing student is expecting to graduate this year.

She says it can be quite hard to study as she suffers with symptoms including fatigue, even though she loves her course.

“Every time I pull out a textbook it can be hard, I enjoy what I learn but, in the back of my head, it is so tiring and I feel exhausted,” she says.

“Even when I get 8 hours of sleep, I still feel tired.”

She says there is not enough recognition around the condition, and she often feels she’s supposed to ignore it.

“In society, you are told to just keep going and there is a level where men are at and it’s overlooked because everyone has it and you just have to deal with it,” she says.

UWA Professor Toby Richards is a qualified vascular surgeon in the UK and Australia. He has produced articles such as the The Misogyny of Iron Deficiency in 2021.

He says iron deficiency starts in the blood, but moves into the brain as there is no oxygen in the blood.

“Now in the brain, iron is essentially making the energy within the cell to make neurotransmitters. So lack of iron means that women present with brain frog, inability to think clearly, forgetfulness and failure to cope and in many people, it can be manifested as Anxiety or Depression.”

Professor Toby Richards