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Iron deficiency and anaemia affect premenopausal women's quality of life. Daily oral iron supplements are standard treatment, causing gastrointestinal side effects, which could be overcome by an alternate-day dosing regimen. In this review, we compare dosing strengths and frequencies in trials: Twice-daily doses of 160 mg of elemental iron increases the ferritin- but not the haemoglobin level significantly and is poorly tolerated compared to 60-80 mg elemental iron taken daily or every other day, in mild to moderate anemia, although evidence for severe anaemia is limited.