I knew there was one more thing I wanted to document: the only plus I can tell from these years of being in perimenopause. I'm 3 for 3 in being able to donate whole blood at the Red Cross! I'm an over 7 gallon donor, starting with blood drives at Sewanee, and never had iron issues until my late 20s when two changes happened:
1) I'd stopped eating iron fortified breakfast cereal for at least one meal a day
2) the mid-Tennessee area stopped using the ear for iron tests and returned to finger pricks.

I started failing all the time, usually by tiny amounts, but I got very demoralized and stopped going. Even a couple of years ago, when Evan and I first started having 'date Saturdays' every 8 weeks or so to go and donate blood, I would only pass about one time in 3. But the 3 most recent times we've gone, I've passed, and not just scraped by- my iron has been a full percentage point above what was needed. I love that! I really love giving blood and see it as my de facto volunteering until such time as I figure out another way to do so that I find rewarding. I've never become faint while donating, even though most of the time I do so on an empty stomach. Both my sister and mom are unable to donate, so I feel as though I'm doing so on their behalf since their makeup is somehow so different from mine.