Pumping Iron

I'd like to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to talk a little about anemia.
Anemia is very common in female athletes.  Women need roughly twice as much iron as men.  Your sweat contains trace amounts of iron, so the more you sweat the more iron you lose and subsequently need to replace.  Also, if you happen to play a full contact sport, it's possible that you bleed more than the average person therefore losing even more iron. 
Why is this important?  Your body needs iron to make hemoglobin in your blood.  Hemoglobin is the thing that transports the oxygen in your lungs to your muscles.  If you don't have enough hemoglobin, it will be very difficult for your blungs to get the fuel you need to the rest of your body.
OK - whatever.  Blah blah blah science.  If you want more specific information you can Google it.  Anemia is on my mind today because I've been feeling shitty lately and last week it occurred to me that it's been about six months since I ran out of iron supplements and neglected to get more.  I take iron because my doctor recommended it.  If you feel shitty and think you're anemic you should confirm with a doctor before starting on an iron regimin.  Too much iron can build up in your system and have very negative repercussions to your health.  It runs in my mind that it can kill you, but I'm not sure if that's true.  Anyway - you get the idea - go to your doctor.
Let me describe the exact nature of 'feeling shitty.'  For me, the onset of anemia is very gradual.  The first thing that happens is I start to feel out of shape.  Each successive workout is more difficult and as the weeks go by I start to have to pant very early in my workouts.  I consider this to be an insiduous attack on my compulsive nature because it preys on my pre-existing belief that I should always be exercising more.  As a result, I exercise more.  Since fitness was not the problem to begin with I start to feel worse.  This goes on for some time before I come to my second erronous decision:  I must be overtraining.  However, no amount of rest will address an iron deficiency. 
If I let this go on long enough I start to feel pain in my liver.  Liver pain may not actually be a symptom of anemia.  I'm not even sure that the liver is supposed to be able to feel pain.  What I can tell you is I experience horrible discomfort the feels like a fun combination of heartburn and nasua and feels like it's tucked right up under my ribcage.  I'm calling it liver pain.  Call it what you want.  This is also when I feel like an idiot because it occurs to me that anemia is the problem and I should know better than to stop taking my iron pills.
The good news?  There is NOTHING better than the feeling of returning to normal levels after being anemic for awhile.  It's like iron is a magic Wonder Woman pill that makes you faster, stronger, cheerful and more alert.  If you've been training hard and you still feel shitty, it might be worth a trip to the doctor and a pin prick just to see if iron can be your Wonder Woman pills too.
<posted on 8.9.12>