The doctor dismissed my hair loss and dizziness as “just being a tired mom.”

After giving birth to her second child, Rose Stokes was exhausted all the time.

“I couldn’t really do anything other than the bare minimum to take care of my children. I put them to bed at seven and had to go straight to bed,” explains the independent journalist.

Rose thought that was exactly what it meant to be a mother of two young children.

But fatigue wasn’t the only problem.

“I also had other symptoms, like my hair was falling out.

“I had a strange metallic taste [in my mouth] all the time. I also had ulcers on my tongue and [experienced] shortness of breath and dizziness.

“I went to the doctor several times and each time I was told, ‘Well, you’re a mother of young children, what are you waiting for?’ – but the level of exhaustion was so intense,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.

After several visits to her doctor, Rose ordered a blood test which revealed low levels of the protein ferritin.

While Rose’s first doctor initially dismissed her ferritin levels as, in her words, “not being that low,” she managed to see another doctor who ultimately gave her a diagnosis: iron deficiency.

This is a relatively common problem, especially among women. According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, around 8% of women have it, while far fewer men are affected – just 3% in the UK.

Pregnancy – as Rose had just experienced – is a common cause.

Rose’s symptoms – fatigue, dizziness and tongue ulcers – are just some of the things to watch out for.

Other common symptoms may include shortness of breath, heart palpitations, paler than usual skin, and headaches, while some people may experience rarer symptoms like tinnitus, restless legs syndrome, and hair loss.

For her deficiency, Rose was initially prescribed iron tablets – the most common form of treatment – but, despite trying three different ones, none of them agreed with her.

Dr Sue Pavord, consultant haematologist at Oxford NHS Hospitals, says taking iron tablets in the morning on an empty stomach with a glass of water or vitamin C is the best approach, otherwise you may not be effective.

After she reacted badly to the tablets, Rose’s doctor referred her to an iron infusion – a way to get iron into your bloodstream quickly.

It can be “transformative for women with severe deficiency,” Dr. Pavord says, but she also emphasizes that the tablets can work “extremely well,” so it’s important to try them first.

But what you eat can also help limit your risk of iron deficiency, according to Dr. Pavord.

She suggests foods with absorbable iron like red meat, chicken, liver and fish.

Vegetables like spinach, kale, and broccoli also contain iron, but the body doesn’t absorb it as efficiently as meat.

Two and a half months after her infusion, Rose says she feels “a completely different person.”

“I can do things. At first it was like getting to the end of the day and being able to sit down and watch TV or being able to get up with the kids in the morning and not feel like you’re dying.”