Which came first - the chicken or the egg?

I have been taking iron supplements for well over a year. Since the addition of my thyroid medication, it has become a little more complicated because you can't take iron with thyroid med or it will affect the absorption of the thyroid med into my system.

So I was Googling how much iron supplement I should be taking at one time. When I was taking 3 pills per day, I would try for morning, supper and bedtime. I can't take it in the morning anymore and then I often forget the rest of the time - so wondered if I was allowed to take all three at once.... (no answer on that as yet - will save the question for my GP).

Anyway, in doing that research, I was learning about the difference between anemia and low iron and low ferritin (I won't bore you with it) - but found it VERY interesting reading low iron can be a result of CANCER cells 'stealing' the iron from your body.

I have always assumed my low iron was due to that heavy bleeding I described earlier. Now I wonder if the heavy bleeding was due to the thyroid and the low iron was because of the cancer.

It's mind-boggling since I have also wondered if the thyroid issue is caused by the cancer treatment, or did I have that before. And since a low thyroid causes more 'thyroid stimulating HORMONE' to be created by my pituitary gland, and since I had a cancer that was fed by hormones, is my thyroid issue the cause of my cancer? Or a contributing factor to the aggressive nature of it?

ARGH...!

I never get straight answers from the doctors. I am very happy with all the treatment I have received but one thing that gets me is it is the same for all the doctors - no one will really commit to anything.

My radiation oncologist tells me that taking birth control pills probably did not contribute to my cancer since bcp regulate hormones and so probably kept them more constant than mass influxes of hormone. I told that theory to my GP who felt very skeptically about this theory and is pretty much convinced that the pills were a contributing factor.

I've got the gyno telling me that it's ok to use a hormone-iud, and both my GP and oncologist said NO. The onc tried to 'soft sell' it by saying that 'technically, they don't know for sure the effect of progestin on hormone positive cancers but it is best not to risk it'.

I was once diagnosed with an 'elevated sedimentation rate'. I'm not even sure what the hell that is - but when they retested me, I was told it was ok and don't worry. That was the original doc - the only one that pissed me off - and she was leaving on vacation so I am not convinced that it was NOT something to worry about - but she didn't want to deal with me.....

Perhaps the "ESR" was not an indicator on its own, but combined with my massive mood swings (hormonal????) plus low iron - someone might have thought to check for cancer before I found a big lump, don't you think?

I guess they assume the easy things first. But it is all a little disconcerting. Now I am left wondering that if I had low iron because cancer cells were using it up, when I am taking 900mg of iron supplements, am I potentially feeding/encouraging cancer again? Just like they don't want me taking hormones, maybe I shouldn't be on iron supplements. Then again, your body NEEDS iron.... so I don't know. I have a list started from my GP but I honestly am not expecting any enlightenment... even though I really like my GP.

I know I said in posts way early on to be careful of what you read on the Internet in relation to cancer, as it is extremely scary reading - and my actual experience was never as scary as what can be read online. However, when you finally DO get to the stage of wanting to know things, you can't really get anything from real doctors and so you are left resorting to Internet research and freaking yourself out. I feel like I have gone through all this treatment without really knowing anything much about cancer.

I guess I know a lot more than many other people - but I know more about the process and how things work as far as treatment goes. I don't really KNOW what has actually happened to me. I don't know why Herceptin is supposed to help me. I guess I get a little that Tamoxifen is an estrogen blocker - and if my cancer wants estrogen, blocking it seems like a good idea. But again, what if my cancer wants iron????

I need to get some answers. If I actually get anything useful, I'll let you guys know....