It takes more than a few or several transfusions to be at risk of hemochromatosis.
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Having more stored iron than you need creates problems.
If blood ferritin is less than 70 ng/ml, the person has an iron deficiency.
I’m just referring to the reason for blood letting due to hemochromatosis. Mine was significantly high, but they are not going to treat it until it remained at that level or higher.
For instance, normal hemoglobin levels are around 12. But they don’t give transfusions till it’s 8. And yes, you’ll feel bad at 9. Platelets, normal is 150-450. But they don’t transfuse till 15. (Perhaps even 11 ). Yes, you’ll bruise and gums will bleed under 50. After treatment I stayed at 70-90 for 3 years without problems. It was walking around around 5-10 untreated that could have killed me tho.
My point is they don’t treat blood problem just because it’s high or low. It has to be significant, prolonged, and side effects are problematic more than ‘tired’.
Trust me. As a blood cancer patient, this was my language. My life revolved around blood count numbers. It still revolves around those numbers. I recall when my in the hospital for AML my sister would text me asking how I was doing. I’d text back my rbc, anc (neutrophil), wbc, platelet, levels. Because that was how I was doing.