I have been iron deficient since I was diagnosed in 2020. Also, my bone marrow showed that my iron stores were depleted. I have been taking iron supplements but not much, because it causes you to make more red blood cells which leads to more phlebotomies! It’s a viscous cycle.

hi , low iron lvl in pv patients is normal 'created' to slow down blood production
if this low iron lvl is 'cured' by medication blood production will increase
a professor at university hospital told me 'you will like sport drinks because they contain lots of iron , first you will feel well , later you will come to me to give blood'

I understand keeping PV patients slightly iron deficient, but how low of an iron and ferritin level are safe? Iron is needed in many chemical reactions in the body.

Yes, iron is necessary, but research suggests that, even when someone with PV increases their iron intake, the body will absorb only so much in order to keep our iron levels low.

One's iron level shows the amount of iron in the body. One's ferritin level indicates the number of iron 'storage containers' available to accept and store iron. In other words, if your iron is low but your ferritin is normal, you can consume more iron and store it away, but if both your iron AND ferritin levels are low, you can consume a lot of iron but have no 'room' to store that iron. In the latter case, consuming a lot of iron does no good. The latter state is the one many to most PV patients find themselves.

Recently, I read that researchers believe the body of a PV sufferer uses iron deficiency as a mechanism, a tool, to decrease the production of RBC. So, theoretically, all PV patients are iron deficient.