Ferocon Alternative?

Hello friends - my surgery was 4-1/2 weeks ago.  My dr. prescribed Ferocon and said I'd have to take it forever.  Well, I'm having unpleasant side effects and I'd like to find something over the counter.  Why do we need additional iron if we're taking a multi vit with iron??  Any words of wisdom would be appreciated!!

The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery says menstruating women need 54-63 mg iron a day and everyone else needs 36 mg a day.  Of course, if your blood work shows you need more iron than that, you should take more iron than that.

So if your multi has the recommended amount of iron in it (many have 18 mg iron and we should take two multivitamins a day) and our blood work shows our iron level is not low, then we do not need additional iron.  If our multi gives us less than the recommended amount of iron or our blood work shows we need more, we should take more.

I'm not sure what kind of iron Ferocon is.  I'm guessing ferrous sulfate or ferrous something?  Those often cause an upset tummy and constipation.  I like carbonyl iron, which is available over the counter (so is ferrous sulfate, for that matter), because it's absorbed better than the iron salts like ferrous sulfate by most people and usually doesn't cause constipation or other tummy issues.

Heme iron is another good choice but it's much more costly.