Daily iron supplementation beneficial in menstruating women

Daily iron supplementation effectively reduced the prevalence of anaemia and iron deficiency, raised haemoglobin and iron stores, improved exercise performance and reduced symptomatic fatigue. These benefits came at the expense of increased gastrointestinal side effects such as constipation and abdominal pain. Evidence that iron supplementation improved cognitive performance in women was uncertain, as studies could not be meta-analysed and individual studies reported conflicting results. There was no evidence of difference in efficacy between different iron salts.