Hemochromatosis is a disorder that causes the body to accumulate iron. The symptoms of hemochromatosis generally start with arthritic joint pain. Later, symptoms include things like abdominal pain, loss of sex drive, chronic fatigue and abnormal menstruation. If the disease is left untreated, several advanced symptoms can develop, including cirrhosis of the liver, liver failure, liver cancer and congestive heart failure. Some of the later symptoms of hemochromatosis can be life-threatening, so it’s usually important to treat the disease in its early stages.
There are several kinds of hemochromatosis. The main variety, which is called hereditary hemochromatosis, develops in adulthood, usually after the age of 25. Juvenile hemochromatosis is another variety of the disease that can develop after the age of 15, and neonatal hemochromatosis is something that people develop before they’re even born. Of the three, neonatal is the most deadly variety, and sometimes it can even result in children being stillborn.
The early symptoms of hemochromatosis are generally quite similar to the symptoms of several other illnesses, so doctors often fail to test for it. Generally speaking, the best way to identify the disease is with a simple blood test to determine if there is excess iron being accumulated. If the blood test comes back positive, the doctor may request additional procedures, such as a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test or a liver biopsy.
Hemochromatosis is generally an inherited disease, and a person’s risk factors increase significantly if they have at least one parent with the disorder. Other things that raise risk include being male and having a northern European ancestry. Some experts recommend that people with high risk factors should be tested occasionally after the age of 25, even if symptoms of hemochromatosis haven’t developed.
Treatment of hemochromatosis is generally quite simple as long as the disease is recognized early enough. The most common approach is to take some of the patient's blood, which helps get rid of excess iron. Individuals will generally have to take this treatment repeatedly during their lifetimes, but the actual frequency can vary depending on the severity. If the disorder isn't diagnosed before the later stages of hemochromatosis and the patient may already be suffering from serious complications like cirrosis of the liver, the blood-draining procedure may not always be enough to fix the problem. It will, however, usually halt or slow down any further worsening and keep other symptoms of hemochromatosis from developing.
