I have Ehlers Danlos, hypermobility type. I am female, 58 years old with a lifelong history of easy bruising -- not too bad. I just couldn t be spanked even lightly as a child or I d be bruised for 2 weeks. I am having ongoing problems with slight anemia. I am vegetarian but eat iron fortified cereal daily, at least 100% of daily requirement plus the iron in a healthy vegetarian diet. My doctor found no sign of intestinal bleeding. I had my last period five years ago and expected my chronic problems with mild anemia to finally go away. The bruising has gotten slightly worse as I get older. I also bleed more easily. I do not ever take aspirin products or other NSAIDS since I had problems with bleeding from even a half a baby aspirin a day in my thirties. My doctor is concerned about the fact that even with supplementation my Fe remains low. Is anemia another Ehlers Danlos thing?
Hi, I think you've answered your own question. It can be from very small areas that won't show up on tests. There's a simple test of iron depletion that shows if there is chronic bleeding. You can't change someone's genes nor their protein structures from the gene. It's going to be GI tract and checking for polyps and going on a lot of stomach acid medicines to also include ones that coat the lining like sucralfate and maybe mistral. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.