Causes of Anemia: What Are Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS)?

Many people associate anemia with not getting enough iron in your diet. However, there are many possible causes of anemia. One of those causes is called myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS.

What is anemia?

Anemia is when your blood isn’t able to carry enough oxygen from your lungs to other parts of your body. In the case of MDS, this may happen because you don’t have enough healthy red blood cells.

Anemia may cause many symptoms, including:

• Fatigue (feeling tired) and weakness

• Always feeling cold

• Dizziness

• Irritability

• Shortness of breath

• Headaches

• Whooshing sound in ears

• Pale or yellow skin

• Fast or irregular heartbeat

What are myelodysplastic syndromes?

“Myelodysplastic syndromes are a complex group of blood cancers that lead to low red blood cell count, low platelet count and/or a low white blood cell count,” says Jonathan Feld, MD, Hematology Specialist at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

All blood cells start as stem cells in the bone marrow. Stem cells are basically young or immature blood cells. When someone has MDS, they may have abnormal stem cells that never mature into normal blood cells. 

Then, these abnormal, immature cells may start to crowd out the normal stem cells. These cells are not able to function like healthy, adult blood cells. As a result, you may experience symptoms of anemia due to lack of red blood cells.

What are types of myelodysplastic syndromes?

The types of MDS may include:

• Refractory anemia: Low red blood cell count, but with normal counts of white blood cells and platelets

• Refractory anemia with ring sideroblasts: Low red blood cell count, with some of these red blood cells containing excess iron. Counts of white blood cells and platelets are normal

• Refractory anemia with excess blasts: Low red blood cell counts with possibly lower white blood cells and platelet counts due to the presence of immature blood cells. This type of MDS is linked to an increased risk of acute myeloid leukemia.

There are different treatment options depending on your type of MDS, among other factors. “​​Our goal is always to improve quality of life and increase overall survival [to help people] live as normal life as possible,” says Dr. Feld.