An intriguing finding of the present study was that
pregnant women with sickle cell trait present a decreased
risk of having iron deficiency. While there is an established
association between sickle cell disease and iron deficiency,
there are few data on sickle cell trait and iron deficiency in
pregnancy [23,24]. Hershko et al. [25] observed a reciprocal
relationship between sickle cell trait and iron deficiency
anemia in 75 Lebanese subjects. They postulated that increased
iron absorption, or reduced iron requirements in
these patients resulted in less risk of discrepancy between
iron supply and demand. Further research is needed to
determine whether sickle cell trait confers increased protection
against iron deficiency.