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Isabelle Feldhaus: What the New ASH Iron Deficiency Guidance Means for Care

Isabelle Feldhaus/LinkedIn

Sep 26, 2026, 16:04

Isabelle Feldhaus: What the New ASH Iron Deficiency Guidance Means for Care

Isabelle Feldhaus, Founder and Editor at Femme Fortified, Founder and CEO at Belle Labs, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“It’s finnaly happened.

The American Society of Hematology has published new guidelines raising the thresholds for diagnosing iron deficiency and is calling on laboratories to put them into practice.

For women who’ve been told their iron is ‘normal’ while feeling anything but, this could change that conversation.

On September 16th, ASH published guidance suggesting a ferritin threshold of equal to or less than 30 ng/mL for adults, including menstruating and pregnant individuals, rather than equal to or less than 15.

For some, particularly those reporting symptoms of iron deficiency, the guidance supports using equal to or less than 50.

I’ve written before about being sent home with ‘normal’ blood work while feeling anything but normal.

I had my research training to lean on, and went back to the literature myself.

That experience is part of why I’m building in women’s health.

So yes, I’m excited about this.

Higher thresholds have been supported before.

Having ASH put its weight behind them, with tools to help laboratories change how they report results, gives us something concrete to work with.

That gives clinicians something to act on.

It gives the people advocating for change something to point to.

And it moves us closer to recognizing iron deficiency in women whose results could otherwise be brushed off as ‘normal.’

This is the kind of progress I’ve been hoping to see for a long time now.

A step in the right direction, moving things forward – with robust evidence to back it up!”