This table gives you a rough guide to the normal values of ferritin. Here you can roughly classify where your value lies in comparison to the average. Especially for babies up to six months of age, there are much more precise classifications according to week and month of life, as ferritin decreases strongly after birth. Also, the ages are not to be seen too strictly. If you now have a ferritin value of 250 μg/l as a woman at 49, that can be perfectly fine. Here, the 50 years should rather be seen as a synonym for the borderline to menopause. Besides gender and age, the method of analysis of ferritin in the laboratory also makes a difference. Different labs have slightly different normal ranges, which your doctor will certainly know about.
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Ferritin: the body's iron store
Maybe you know the following situation: You go to the doctor because of a problem. He takes your blood and sends it to the laboratory. At the next appointment, he hands you a piece of paper and says: "The ferritin is a little off. But that doesn't matter." Unfortunately, there are no further explanations and all you see are question marks. What is this ferritin? You can find the answers to these questions here:
What exactly is ferritin?
Ferritin is a so-called storage molecule. It consists of many different protein structures in the form of tiny spheres. Iron ions can dock onto these. There are up to 2000 iron ions in a single ferritin molecule.
The binding of iron is vital for our body: free iron ions are toxic for it. Nevertheless, it needs iron to transport oxygen in the blood. Iron is also an important building block for various enzymes that are involved in basic bodily functions.
Our organism keeps a total of three to five grams of iron in stock. About 20 % of this is stored in ferritin as depot iron. The majority of these storage molecules are found in the body's cells. Most ferritin is stored in the cells of the liver, spleen and bone marrow. However, a little enters the bloodstream. That is why the doctor can determine the ferritin by means of a laboratory analysis of the blood. The remaining approx. 80 % of the iron supply is bound in the red blood pigment haemoglobin.
What ferritin value is normal?
It's a funny thing about standard values in medicine. Lay people easily get the impression that these values define irrefutable limits within which we are healthy. Exceeding or falling below the limits is always associated with illness. However, this is true in the rarest cases, i.e. for the fewest physiological parameters. Norm values are usually determined by taking a huge number of individual measurements. An average is then formed and a range is defined within which the majority - for example 95 % of the measurements - lie. At the same time, of course, the threshold value at which physical problems occur is also taken into account.
To cut a long story short: the data on "normal" ferritin values vary. They also depend on age and gender. Babies have higher levels than adults and men have higher levels than women. If your ferritin level is above or below the norm for your group, you can relax for now. Your doctor will usually repeat the measurement and, if in doubt, consult other parameters. We will introduce you to a few of these in a moment. It is important that only the overall picture provides information about whether the deviating ferritin value is related to a disease or has only occurred by chance.
| m | Über 50 years | 4 | 665 |
| sex | age | lower limit [μg/ l] | upper limit [μg/ l] |
| w & m | Up to 6 months | 37 | 628 |
| w & m | 6 months to 15 years | 7 | 142 |
| w | 16 to 50 years | 22 | 112 |
| w | Über 50 Jahre | 13 | 651 |
| m | 16 to 50 years | 34 | 34 |
What does the ferritin value depend on?
There are people whose ferritin value is below the normal range even after repeated measurements. Others consistently have a value that is too high. In both cases, there are various possible causes, symptoms and consequences. You can find more detailed information on this in our two further articles "What does an elevated ferritin value mean?" and "What to do if the ferritin value is too low?
As mentioned above, ferritin is usually not sufficient as a sole indicator. For example, it can be elevated due to an acute infection, but regulates itself again in the course of the recovery process. In this case, it would be fatal to suspect cancer because of an increased ferritin value (which in turn can be the cause of an increase in ferritin). On the other hand, the ferritin level can be too low due to iron deficiency. However, if the blood is drawn during an acute infection, the temporary increase in ferritin masks the actual deficiency. In both cases, repeated measurements are necessary.
Important blood values for the diagnosis
Your doctor will usually have more than just the ferritin value determined in the laboratory. Depending on what he suspects, he will request certain other values. The basis for the laboratory analysis is usually your blood sample.
Two other common values are transferrin and transferrin saturation. Transferrin is a protein that is responsible for transporting iron in the blood. With its help, iron reaches the cells that need it at the moment. If there is an iron deficiency, for example, the body produces more transferrin. If the transferrin saturation drops at the same time, this is another indicator of iron deficiency. Transferrin saturation indicates how many transferrin proteins are actually loaded with iron. Normally, transferrin saturation is around 30 %. If your current value differs from this, this can give your doctor a clue to the exact problem, such as anaemia (anaemia of the blood).
"Erythrocytes" is the technical term for red blood cells. They contain haemoglobin, which in turn is responsible for transporting oxygen in the blood. In turn, iron is found in the haemoglobin. The values MCV, MCH and MCHC are measured as part of a small blood count. These abbreviations all refer to certain properties of the erythrocytes and tell your doctor how your red blood cells are doing. This knowledge provides further information for the cause of a deviating ferritin value.
Of course, there are many other values that can be important in making a diagnosis. However, to list them all here would go beyond the scope of this article. With transferrin and the erythrocyte values, you already know two important parameters that are often discussed in connection with ferritin.
Ferritin is an iron storage molecule made up of small protein structures that you can imagine to be spherical. Its size is about eight nanometres. Iron ions are bound in these protein structures. There can be up to 2000 iron ions per ferritin molecule. Ferritin mainly serves as an iron store in the cells of the body. However, in small quantities it also passes into the blood.
The normal ranges for ferritin are quite wide. They depend strongly on age and sex. Babies in particular can have much higher ferritin levels than children or adults. On average, males have more ferritin than females, which is partly due to blood loss during menstruation. Therefore, the normal range for women after the menopause changes once again. The normal values also vary depending on the laboratory and its analysis methods. Roughly speaking, ferritin ranges from 20 μg/ l to 300 μg/ l in adults under 50. In people over 50, undetectable levels are approximately between 10 μg/ l and 650 μg/ l.
To determine your ferritin level, your doctor or a trained nurse will need to draw blood from you with a syringe. This is then sent to a laboratory that specialises in analysing blood samples. The exact process for determining the value is difficult for lay people to understand. In the end, your doctor will receive the value after a few days and can use it to make a diagnosis or take further measures.
Since ferritin is a natural iron store of the body, its concentration in the blood is analysed especially when iron deficiency is suspected. Often the doctor already suspects an anaemia based on other parameters such as the Hämoglobin value and the erythrocyte parameters. The ferritin value can then confirm this suspicion.
Ferritin is stored primarily in the cells of the body. The largest stores are in the cells of the spleen, liver and bone marrow. Small amounts pass from the cells into the blood. Depending on which organ the ferritin is stored in, the iron storage molecule takes on a slightly different structure.
Conclusion
Ferritin is the body's iron storage molecule. It binds around 20 % of the iron reserves, as free iron ions are toxic for the organism. A large part of the ferritin is stored in the body cells of the liver, spleen and bone marrow. But ferritin is also found in the blood. Your doctor can have a laboratory determine whether your ferritin level is within the normal range. What is normal depends on your age and sex. If your ferritin level is higher or lower than normal, there are several possible reasons, which we discuss in detail in other articles. It is important to remember that a single measurement is of limited value. For a more accurate diagnosis, other indicators such as transferrin and erythrocytes in the blood should be analysed.
