I’ve only been anaemic in pregnancy’s (from second trimester) really in the past nd also when I once stripped old laquer off an old piano we discovered later it was high in lead and I had been anaemic and run down after that.  Lead can cause iron deficiency.  Mainly though it is caused from not eating enough red meat.  

It seems like it has been going on a long time for you as I remember you mentioning this sometime ago.  I took tablets scripted by the midwife..Fero-Gradumet or something.   It can take a month or two from what I understand to recover from just mild anaemia.   Those tablets gave me the runs actually and the tummy cramps and I asked about an iron injection and she said they didn’t usually like giving those unless there was really serious anaemia.  Mine was bad enough though at the time and I felt exhausted so goodness knows what it fels like to be seriously deficient. 

As I understood it when your lacking iron there is less oxygen in the blood.  Red blood cells are the ones needed to transport oxygen as you probably know.  But at the URL below this can also be affected by physical exertion or sport---the red cell count can be low in fact for up to a few days after hard physical exertion.  I get the impression that your very active, so I am just mentioning that because it could be something that gives false results I guess.  Of course as you will know, in sport cortisol, stress and exhertion--cortisol levels go up---and this happens to coincide with the plummet in red blood cells...so maybe there is a connection there with cortisol taken orally and taking the iron count also.  Ashley has never had a test for iron so I can’t give you any info from the perspective of someone with CAH, but reading about the above has got me thinking about it now. 

Something else interesting here about how cortisol levels affect the white cell count in the blood at the same URL:

http://www.medicdirectsport.com/athletictraining/default.asp?step=4&pid=438

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White Blood Cells

White blood cells (known as leukocytes) are the cellular part of the immune system and are very important in surveying the body for infection. They find, trap, neutralise and kill invading pathogens (micro-organisms capable of causing illness). There are many different types of white blood cells which have specific functions in protecting you against developing infections.

Endurance training causes the body to release hormones such as cortisol that can reduce the number and function of white blood cells in the blood. Cortisol is released when the body is stressed; it is known as a ’stress hormone’ and your body perceives exercise as a stressor just as it does exams, moving house, redundancy, bereavement etc. Cortisol levels can become high for example, if your training has been particularly hard, you have been doing very long exercise sessions or many competitions, not eating enough carbohydrate at meals or during training, or having inadequate sleep.

If the total white blood cell count is high, it may be that you have not recovered properly from a training session or that you may have an infection of some kind. It is never advisable to train with a cold or infection of any kind; your body is fighting to keep you healthy, so don’t stress it more; take a few days off training until the symptoms of illness have gone. In the long term, you will miss fewer days training by stopping training altogether during illness than keeping training and risk developing further complications such as Post-Viral fatigue and Overtraining Syndrome. These complications may stop you training completely for very long periods of time or ultimately force you to retire from your sport.

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As for side-effects of iron injections, it is possible to overload or overdose on iron. 

"Iron overload disorders cause the body to retain iron in vital organs and joints. Left untreated, this can cause cirrhosis, diabetes, liver cancer, heart failure, and arthritis, and lead to premature death."

Sounds gruesome, but to be honest if your very anaemic and need the injections for a while your nowhere near having iron overload.  A symptom ironically of too much iron is fatigue.  So I guess you would take some time to gain energy and then if you received too much iron after the levels had been brought back to normal, you would eventually start suffering from fatigue again if the injections are not stopped.

From what I can gather though you can have a blood tests that tells you if you have too much iron in the blood.  So they could test for that at some point later on I guess.  Some more info about too much iron here:

http://www.emmitsburgdispatch.com/2002/October/doctorword.shtml

Cheers

Anne-Marie