Only 9.2% of women starting anticoagulation were screened for iron deficiency
Prevalence of iron deficiency in reproductive-age females on anticoagulation.
Brianna R Bakow … Lisa Baumann Kreuziger
Thrombosis research · 2026
Background
The use of anticoagulation in reproductive-aged females increases the risk of heavy menstrual bleeding (heavy menstrual bleeding).
Purpose
We investigated the frequency with which reproductive-aged female patients on anticoagulants undergo screening for and receive a diagnosis of iron deficiency/IDA.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the TriNetX global dataset of females aged 18-55 without a diagnosis of cancer who started anticoagulation therapy.
n = 3655
9.2%
Results
9.2%
Just 9.2% of patients had ferritin checked within 90 days of starting anticoagulation.
n = 3655
More results
The initial cohort included 1,463,349 unique female patients across 93 healthcare organizations.
Exclusion of those with cancer and those without laboratory values resulted in a final cohort of 783,196.
Of those, 36.6% had a ferritin level ≤ 50 ng/mL while 25.8% had ferritin levels ≤30 ng/mL.
More results
Among individuals with ferritin ≤30 ng/mL, 19.7% (n = 3655) had a hemoglobin ≥12 and 44.0% (n = 8170) had MCV < 80 fL.
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Conclusion
Future studies and interventions are indicated to increase screening and expedite treatment of iron deficiency/IDA in reproductive-aged female patients starting anticoagulation.