Hemochromatosis - Do I Have it?!

Hello All,

I am a 25 year old Male from Ireland (both parents are Irish) and I recently attended the doctor because I found two lumps, one under each armpit (one painful,one not). I asked the doctor what this could be and she told me they were probably blocked sweat glands. She wrote a prescription for some antibiotics and that was almost that. Before I left, I also mentioned that I had been getting persistent pressure like headaches in the top right corner of my forehead. They were not severe, merely an annoyance but their persistence was what worried me.

When I told the Doctor this she said it would be best if I had blood tests done.

I had the tests done and everything came back normal apart from my Iron levels. My transferrin Saturation was at 61%. My iron level was 36.8 umol and my TIBS was at 61 aswell.

The doctor wrote on the results that a transferrin saturation above 55% was highly indicative of Heredetry Hemochromatosis (94% predictive).

I spoke with my parents and asked if there was a family history and found out that infact, my whole family have a history of low iron levels and vitamin B12 deficiency.

The same applied with my borthers and sisters (family of 5).

Shouldn't there be a history of at least one family member with high iron levels?

Is there any way that transferrin saturation levels can be raised temporarily and result is a flawed blood test?

I gave a second blood test yesterday but was told that the screening process for hemachromatosis takes 10-12 weeks.

I have read up so much about the disease in the past two days and have really worried myself so if you have any information or previous experience it would be great if you could share.

Could any of the following have affected my results:

I Binge Drink once a fortnight/month

I Smoke 10-15 a day

I Eat alot of takeaway food.

I Was taking Centrum Advance supplements sporadically in the lead up to the blood test.

This has been a wakeup call for me so I immediately quit smoking and focused on improving my diet.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Thanks,

Ciaran