Does everyone end up needing to take an iron supplement at some point?

Not necessarily. Often ferritin increases by itself over time by simply eating enough meat and seafood. A lot of the time, people can simply wait and iron will correct itself over time and ferritin will increase over time. Simply eating enough meat every day is usually good enough for some people, and they will see their ferritin increase over time. But it takes time and you need to wait it out. 

But that's not always the case. It depends on the person. Some people have a hard time eating enough meat every day. It also depends on their blood work. Sometimes people have such low iron and ferritin, that they benefit immediately from getting more heme iron into them by taking a heme iron supplement. And that's why I tell some of you to start taking a heme iron right away. Others, I tell you to just wait it out for now.