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Iron for girls aged 15 to 17

Thirteen milligrams a day — higher than an adult man and higher than boys of the same age. Adolescent girls carry growth and menstrual losses at the same time, on a diet that is often changing fast.

EFSA note on this row: EFSA band is 12-17 years, once menstruating

These are published population reference values, not a diagnosis and not a prescription. A reference intake describes what covers a healthy group; it cannot tell you your own status, and no page can. Pregnancy, chronic illness, medicines and malabsorption all change the picture — take those questions to a doctor, midwife, pharmacist or dietitian.

Two demands at once

EFSA sets 11 mg a day for boys aged 12 to 17 and 13 mg for girls in the same band once menstruation has begun. Boys have the larger growth spurt and a bigger increase in blood volume and lean mass; girls have a smaller growth demand but a monthly loss on top of it, and the loss dominates.

The timing is what makes this group distinctive. Menarche typically arrives partway through the band, so a girl of 12 and a girl of 16 can have quite different requirements while sharing a row in the table. That is a reason to treat 13 mg as the planning figure rather than as a measurement.

The habits that collide with it

Adolescence is when several eating patterns that reduce iron intake or absorption tend to appear at once: skipping breakfast, a first attempt at vegetarianism without a plan, energy drinks and tea replacing milk and food at meals, and dieting. Sports that emphasise leanness add another layer, and endurance running adds small iron losses of its own.

None of that means a supplement. It means the meal pattern is worth looking at: iron-containing food at more than one meal, vitamin C alongside it, and tea and coffee not taken with the meal itself.

When to get it checked

Persistent tiredness, breathlessness on stairs, pale skin, brittle nails or hair, poor concentration at school, or unusually heavy or long periods are all reasons to see a doctor. Heavy menstrual bleeding in adolescence is common, treatable, and a genuine cause of iron deficiency; it is worth naming out loud in the consultation rather than assuming it is normal.

Iron supplements should not be started on a guess at this age. A ferritin and haemoglobin test settles it.

How this compares with every other group

Ordinary food against the 13 mg figure for girls 15-17 years

Top of this list: Soybeans, 7.71 mg in a 150 g serving (a portion, cooked) — 59% of the 13 mg figure for girls 15-17 years. It would take about 2 of those to cover a full day from that one food, which is why a real diet spreads it across several rows.

Portion sizes are ordinary household servings chosen for this table, not official reference portions, and the shortlist is an editorial one: everyday foods eaten in this region rather than the highest per-100 g entries in the database. A raw per-100 g ranking would be topped by dried herbs, drink powders and fortified breakfast cereals, which answers a different question. The composition data is American, so where US fortification practice differs from European practice the row carries a dagger and the reason. For the full per-100 g ranking of a nutrient, the food-data section of this site publishes one.

The whole nutrient, not just this group

The Iron reference intake page carries the full age and sex table, the upper level, and what the value type means.

Related pages

Sources: EFSA Dietary Reference Values · Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII · USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy (food composition) · EFSA scientific opinion on dietary reference values for iron (2015) · Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII · checked 2026-09-06

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