Men are much more likely to have symptoms than women. Before menopause women are protected somewhat from the disease because they lose quite a bit of iron during menstruation and childbirth. Some people do not have the disease but are carriers. Being a carrier means that you can pass the gene for the disease on to your children. You may not have any symptoms for years.
Symptoms usually appear in middle age.
Hemochromatosis can be diagnosed from blood tests. These tests can detect the problem before symptoms appear. For people who have no symptoms and no known family history of hemochromatosis, the disease is usually discovered through blood tests done for some other reason. When these blood tests show signs of excess iron or liver damage, specific blood tests for iron overload disease can be done. If blood tests for hemochromatosis are positive, you may have a liver biopsy.