Ferritin Test in Pakistan: Price, Normal Range and What Low Ferritin Means

Your CBC comes back, haemoglobin is 11.4, and the doctor says it is only slightly low. You start an iron tablet, feel a little better, stop after three weeks because the bottle finished. Six months later you are dragging yourself through the day again. The number that would have explained all of that was never measured, because a CBC does not measure it.

That number is ferritin. It is the single most useful blood test for anyone in Pakistan who has been tired for months without a clear reason, and it is still the one most people have to ask for by name.

What a ferritin test actually measures

Ferritin is the protein that binds iron and stores it in your body, according to MedlinePlus. Haemoglobin tells you how much iron is in circulation today. Ferritin tells you what is left in the cupboard behind it.

That distinction matters because of the order things fail in. Stores empty first. Haemoglobin falls later, once there is nothing left to draw on. So a woman can have a perfectly acceptable CBC report and an empty iron reserve at the same time, and she will feel every bit of it: fatigue, breathlessness on the stairs, hair coming out in the shower, a fog that no amount of sleep clears. By the time a CBC flags anaemia, she has been running on empty for a long while.

Ferritin test price in Pakistan

Ferritin is a standard test at every major lab. Here is what the main ones were listing when we checked in September 2026:

Lab rates checked in September 2026. They move with promotions and vary by city, so confirm before you book.

Lab	Listed price
Islamabad Diagnostic Centre (IDC)	around Rs 1,750
Chughtai Lab	around Rs 2,000
Aga Khan Lab	around Rs 3,780

Booking portals discount these fairly often, and several labs collect the sample at home at no extra charge. Results usually come back one to two days after the blood draw.

Do you need to fast?

Sometimes. MedlinePlus says your provider may ask you to fast for 12 hours before the test, and Chughtai Lab's own test page says the same, with only water allowed during those hours. Ask when you book rather than turning up and being sent home.

The sample itself is small, 3 to 5 cc of blood from a vein in your arm, and MedlinePlus puts the draw at under five minutes.

Ferritin normal range, and why "within range" can still be too low

Pakistani reports print ferritin in either ng/mL or µg/L. The two are the same number, so a result of 18 ng/mL is 18 µg/L, nothing to convert.

Here is the part that catches people out. The reference range your lab prints is wide, and the bottom of it is not a target. Cleveland Clinic publishes a commonly used adult range of roughly 15 to 205 ng/mL for women and 30 to 566 ng/mL for men, with 12 to 140 ng/mL for children aged six months to fifteen years. A result of 17 sits inside that range. It will be printed in plain black, with no asterisk next to it.

The WHO cut-off for iron deficiency is below 15 µg/L in women and below 12 µg/L in children under five. But a 2025 multinational study in The Lancet Global Health, using data from 18,251 women and children across 12 countries, found that haemoglobin actually starts declining well above those figures: at 24.8 µg/L in women and 22.1 µg/L in children. Measured that way, iron deficiency affected 36.0% of the women in those surveys instead of the 20.1% the current WHO threshold picks up.

Your ferritin result	What it generally points to
Below 15 ng/mL (below 12 in a child under five)	Iron deficiency by the current WHO cut-off
Roughly 15 to 25 ng/mL	Above the WHO cut-off, but below the level at which haemoglobin begins to fall in the Lancet Global Health analysis. Worth raising with your doctor if you have symptoms.
Comfortably mid-range, no symptoms	Iron stores are unlikely to be your problem. Look elsewhere.
Above your lab's upper limit	See the section on high ferritin below

So if you are handed a report with a low-but-not-flagged ferritin and told everything is fine, that is worth a second conversation, especially if you have the symptoms to go with it.

How common low iron is in Pakistan

Common enough that the odds are not in your favour. An analysis of the National Nutrition Survey 2018, published in Nutrients, found that 18.4% of women of reproductive age and 28.9% of children under five had iron deficiency anaemia, defined as low haemoglobin together with ferritin under 12 ng/mL, adjusted for inflammation.

Anaemia of any cause is far more widespread than that. A 2024 systematic review in the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition pooled 27 Pakistani studies and reported anaemia in 70.4% of pregnant women and 54.6% of non-pregnant adolescent and adult women. Punjab came out highest among pregnant women at 77.4%, and the second trimester was the worst point at 78%.

The NHS names heavy periods and pregnancy as very common causes, which covers a large share of the women reading this. If any of that sounds like you, our guides on iron deficiency symptoms and treatment and why you might be tired all the time go further into the causes.

When ferritin comes back high

A high ferritin is not automatically an iron problem. MedlinePlus lists too much iron in the body as one cause, alongside inflammation, autoimmune disorders, liver disease, cancer, obesity, alcohol use disorder and hyperthyroidism.

There is a practical trap in this. Ferritin rises when your body is inflamed, so a test drawn during a fever or an infection can come back looking healthy while your stores are genuinely empty. The National Nutrition Survey analysis had to statistically adjust every ferritin value for inflammation using CRP and AGP markers before the numbers meant anything. If you were unwell on the day of the draw, repeat the test once you have properly recovered.

What to do if your ferritin is low

1. Find out why it is low

Refilling the tank is pointless if something is draining it. The NHS points to heavy periods and pregnancy as very common causes, and to bleeding in the digestive tract from anti-inflammatory painkillers, ulcers, bowel inflammation or piles. A doctor may order a stool test to check for hidden blood in the gut. This step gets skipped constantly, and it is the reason so many people cycle through iron tablets for years.

2. Treat it for longer than feels necessary

The NHS puts iron tablet treatment at about six months. Most people stop after four or five weeks, when they start feeling human again. That is exactly when haemoglobin has recovered and the store behind it has not, and it is why the tiredness comes back the following year.

Iron tablets can cause constipation or diarrhoea, stomach pain, heartburn, nausea and darker stools, per the NHS. Taking them with or soon after food reduces the chance of that.

3. Give the iron a chance to absorb

The NHS suggests drinking orange juice after your tablet, since vitamin C helps the body take up the iron. Working against you is chai. Tea and coffee reduce iron absorption, which is a real problem in a country that runs on both, so leave a gap between your cup and your tablet rather than swallowing one with the other.

4. Pick a form your stomach will tolerate

Ferosim Iron Bisglycinate Tablets with Folate (Rs 450) contains iron bisglycinate 130 mg, L-methylfolate 200 mcg and vitamin C 50 mg per film-coated tablet. The brand says the chelated bisglycinate form is absorbed relatively efficiently and is kinder to the stomach than traditional iron salts. The pack directs one tablet daily after food, or as your physician advises.

For children, Semofer Iron Drops for Kids (Rs 295) is iron polymaltose 50 mg with folic acid, zinc, biotin and vitamin B12, given with the dropper in the pack at the dose your paediatrician sets for your child's age and weight. Given that nearly three in ten Pakistani under-fives were iron deficient in the 2018 survey, this is worth raising at the next paediatric visit rather than waiting for a symptom.

If you want to compare what else is available locally, we have a fuller rundown of iron supplements in Pakistan and a broader women's health range.

5. If you are pregnant or planning to be, test early

Iron demand climbs through pregnancy, and the Pakistani data has the second trimester as the worst point for anaemia. Get ferritin checked at booking rather than waiting for a haemoglobin to drop. Our pregnancy calculator will tell you where you are in the timeline, and the guide to prenatal vitamins in Pakistan covers what should be in the bottle alongside iron.

When to retest

Ask for ferritin again rather than only a CBC. Haemoglobin is the number that recovers first and tells you the least about whether the job is finished. Since the NHS frames treatment as roughly a six month course, a ferritin check near the end of that course tells you whether the store has genuinely refilled or whether you are about to repeat this whole cycle next year.

Quick answers

Is a ferritin test the same as an iron test?

No. Ferritin is the protein that stores iron, so the result describes your reserve. Labs commonly bundle it with other iron measurements and sell the set as an iron profile, which is why the two get confused.

Can a supplement alone fix a low ferritin?

It depends entirely on what is causing it. If a heavy period or a bleed in the gut is removing iron faster than a tablet replaces it, no supplement will hold the line. Treat the cause and the supplement then has something to work with.

My report says normal. Should I still push?

If your result is in the low teens or low twenties and you have symptoms, yes, that is a fair conversation to have with your doctor. "Within range" and "enough for you" are two different statements, and the Lancet Global Health work suggests the gap between them is wider than the printed range implies.

The short version

If you have been exhausted for months, ask for ferritin by name and do not settle for a CBC alone. Read the actual figure rather than whether it was flagged. Find out what is draining your iron before you start replacing it, and then stay on treatment long enough to refill the store rather than just long enough to feel better. It is a Rs 1,750 to Rs 3,800 test that answers a question a lot of Pakistani women have been carrying around for years.