for a long time, until I started eating meat I had low ferratin. Iron supplements didn’t help and even some weird ferratin supplements didn’t seem to work.

But iron is not ferratin (it’s some kind of stored iron) and I’m not sure if it really had any affect. I was low ferratin but could I have been not low on iron?

Either way iron deficiency is common in vegetarians and vegans, but there are plenty who are just fine. They get iron from tofu and spinach which is different from the iron from meat and maybe affects their levels differently, but it seems to work out.