If women need more dietary iron than men, then do blood donors also?

Question

My understanding that women's dietary iron requirements are slightly higher because I've heard the only way of losing iron from your body is by losing blood, and this happens in menstruation. This got me thinking if someone donates blood does their dietary requirement increase also?

Also, related to this, when a person gives blood we're told that our body remakes the blood we've lost, does this replenish the iron in the blood also, or is this "newly created blood" absent of the iron normally present in our blood?

Answer 1

This can indeed be an issue. Frequent blood donors are known to get low on iron, which begins to result in fatigue, even before it starts resulting in low hemoglobin and anemia.

The cause is simple: like you pointed out, the loss of blood results in the loss of iron, and it takes the body a certain amount of time to rebuild the iron store.

As for your second question, the "newly created blood" will be low on iron until the body can absorb enough iron to replace that which has been donated. Even on iron supplements, it can take up to half a year to rebuild the iron stores of the body to where they ought to be.

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Sources:

• Frequent blood donors risk iron deficiency, Miriam Shuchman, MD
• Iron Deficiency & Anemia Treatment, Webmd.com