Three months on iron tablets. Bloated, constipated, ferritin barely moved.
What’s going wrong? Well you may be putting iron into a gut that can’t absorb it. I see this ALL the time which is why I very rarely recommend iron tablets to support nutrient levels and try and find the driver (ie. gut, diet, inflammation) that could be driving it.
Only around 10% of what you swallow gets taken up. The rest carries on through, and it isn’t neutral. Iron sitting in the colon shifts the bacterial balance, which is a lot of the cramping and constipation women are told to live with.
Low iron isn’t always low intake. It can be low stomach acid, celiac, inflammation, or a bleed heavy enough to outpace any tablet.
So I don’t start with the dose. I start with the driver.
Comment DECODE if you want my health blueprint so we can understand the driver behind your low energy, heavy bleeds and low iron levels which are often interconnected.
Ref: Rusu et al., Nutrients, 2020.
VitalWomanwellness
Hormones Decoded. Been told your symptoms or blood work is ‘normal’? I spot what is missed in perimenopause. Roshani Hill - Founder of VitalWoman Wellness
Science-based coaching to decode your hormones and truly understand your body.
19/08/2026
I get asked the same two things constantly. What can I actually do to help myself. And do you work with kids too. So I am super excited to announce this event!
I am hosting a morning with Nicole Fearnall • Integrative Health Practitioner • Masters. Nicole is one of a kind. She works with children, and not many people in this space do that properly. She is flying in from Australia for this, ready to answer all the questions you have been carrying around for months.
For anyone who doesn’t know me, I help women through hormonal transitions, particularly perimenopause because it is a minefield of misinformation out there, and especially the women who know something isn’t right and want real answers instead of being told they are fine. Whole body, always.
Nicole does the same for children. I wish I’d had her help when I was a kid.
Wednesday 9 September, 10:00 to 12:30. Dubai, venue announced soon. Breath work with the amazing Bella Kristiansen Lund to open. Goodie bags are sponsored by Hewyn, so you will leave with supplement samples worth trying!
Comment or DM ATTUNE and I’ll message you the moment booking opens. You don’t want to miss this one if you have kids, especially any kids with neurodivergent struggles.
17/08/2026
Here is the bit that never gets explained. Making a hormone is the first step, not the only one. It still has to convert, be carried, be read by the receptor, and get cleared out afterwards. Any of those can be off while the level on your report sits inside a range that was never built around how you feel.
That is why “normal” and “well” are not the same word.
Comment DECODE
Nothing is random
14/08/2026
One minute I’m fine, the next I’m soaked.
Most women are told that is just estrogen dropping. It is the last step, not the first. Four things happen before you feel a thing, and your adrenals are doing most of the work.
Swipe for the order it happens in.
Nothing is random. R x.
Comment DECODE If this sounds like you and you need support through peri.
13/08/2026
Estrogen influences how much dopamine you make and how well your receptors respond to it.
In perimenopause progesterone drops away first, then estrogen stops being predictable, and drive stops being predictable with it. Same woman, same effort, different signal week to week. It is also why so many women say their focus fell apart in their late 30s and 40s and nobody could tell them why.
Then there is the bit underneath. The enzyme that builds dopamine needs iron to do its job, which means ferritin sitting low will quietly sit under all of this. It is one of the most common things I find and one of the least often checked, because a ferritin of 20 gets called normal.
Normal is a statistic. Optimal is a standard.
Comment DECODE if this sounds like you
Cold water is not a cure. What the research actually shows is a delayed drop in stress about twelve hours after immersion, alongside better sleep quality and quality of life. That’s why my husband and I do this regularly together. 🧊
Rented by Gym Fit Out Dubai - super easy delivery and set up for your home.
10/08/2026
Advocating for your body, whatever hormonal transition you’re going through is what I help women with. Truly understanding your body starts with your own data, your own biochemistry and knowing your body well enough to trust it.
Do you know yours well enough? 🩸
Follow Roshani Hill | Functional Hormone Health Coach for more information about women’s health and how to advocate for your body as you age 🩷
08/08/2026
Most women I speak with don’t know what thier hormones do or what to look for. That is a system failure.
You get one number, on one day, and someone tells you it looks fine. Then you go home still exhausted, still not sleeping, still wondering what you’re missing.
S*x hormones don’t work as single numbers. They work as patterns. FSH climbing while progesterone drops is a completely different story to both of them sitting low. That difference is the whole thing.
So here’s the cheat sheet I use. Perimenopause, menopause, the pill, PCOS, endometriosis. What runs high, what runs low, and the bit that usually gets skipped.
Screenshot it. Take it with you to your next appointment.
Nothing is random.
Comment DECODE if you want to know what’s going on with your hormones and how to time when you should test.
07/08/2026
Fatigued, inflamed, weight not shifting, and every time movement came up she braced. In her head the pain was the reason. It was also the result.
Less movement, worse fuel handling, muscle quietly going, inflammation sitting higher, more pain. It loops, and it does not break itself.
So we start at ten minutes after a meal. Small on purpose. The point is to interrupt the loop, not win the week.
This is what coaching is actually for. Not to nod along and leave you where you are, but to walk you through the belief keeping you stuck. Agreeing with you is easier. It also keeps you here.
If your pain is new or unchecked, get that looked at first.
DM the word DECODE if you want some support with how to get out of the discomfort cycle and want someone to be honest with you, not tell you that it’s normal.
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