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When I was younger, I had bronzing of the skin; I always looked jaundiced.

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I noticed when I was around 17 that my stomach started going yellow, and I was getting more yellow in the face. There was a new doctor at the GP who thought to run some blood tests. He called me the next evening to say that my iron was between 300 and 400 and it should have been less than 50 for my age.  

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It's really scary; they say you can give blood but the doctor at the hospital has to sign you off to start donating. I still haven’t been approved and that was months ago... They say you have to check on your blood levels but then there’s no good communication with what your blood levels are.  

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Whenever you say, ‘I’m going out for an appointment,’ and it’s for high iron, people say, ‘can you give me some of yours?’ or ‘I thought that only affected men.’ It makes you feel weird because they look at you like; ‘do you really have it?’  

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