I Take Both Iron Pills And Am On The Birth

Posted on Sat, 2 Feb 2019

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 2 Feb 2019 Answered on

Last reviewed on

Question : I take both iron pills and am on the birth control patch. I read that you can't take iron and be on birth control at the same time. When I look up drug interactions with the patch, iron doesn't come up. Am I in danger of overdosing on iron? My ferritin evels are quite low and have been moving slowly up with the iron.

Answered by Dr. Aaron Branch (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
No interactions

Detailed Answer:
Hello, I'm Dr. Branch, thanks for using Ask a Doctor. I have never heard of birth control, patch or otherwise, interfering or interacting with iron supplements, and could not find anything when researching this. Especially since the birth control patch avoids intestinal involvement, I don't see any way that it would interact with the iron you are taking. So I would be reassured that it is safe.

You are unlikely to overdose on iron as long as you are monitoring your ferritin periodically.

One other thing, recently studies have shown that using iron every other day resulted in better absorption and less side effects than every day. If you are not already taking the iron every other day, you could bring that up with your doctor to see what they think.

I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any other questions about that and I would be glad to discuss it further with you.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Nagamani Ng