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We’ve always known that aspirin was a magic drug and that it can help us in various ways, such as improve colon cancer survival, as a new study suggests, but it appears that aspirin is really pulling its weight these days and it can actually help women with recent pregnancy loss conceive. That sounds a bit too good to be true, we know, but read on and see for yourself.
A recent study, published in the online general medical journal The Lancet, discovered that a daily dose of aspirin increases the chances of conceiving a child and delivering that child to term in women who have suffered a recent pregnancy loss.
Aspirin and Women with Recent Pregnancy Loss
Many doctors prescribe low dose aspirin to women with recent pregnancy loss and who want to conceive again, but up until now, there was no proof that this practice actually works. Now, a study lead by doctor Enrique Schisterman (chief of the Edipemiology Branch in Bethesda) carried out a comprehensive study (the largest of its kind) on 1,000 women with a history of miscarriage. He divided the women in two groups, a placebo and an aspirin group.
The aspirin group took folic acid and a low dose of aspirin (81 mg) every day and the placebo group took the same folic acid and a dummy pill. The folic acid is recommended to all women who plan to conceive, as it reduces the risk of giving birth to children with neural tube defects (which affect the spine and the brain).
The women were closely monitored for up to six menstrual cycles; during this time, the women were trying to get pregnant. The ones that got pregnant stopped taking the aspirin at around 35 weeks.
The results of the study were: 13% of the women who took the aspirin and got pregnant had another miscarriage, compared to 12% who took the placebo pills. 58% of the women who took the aspirin got pregnant and carried the child to term, compared to 53% of the women who took the placebo drug.
Those results aren’t amazing at all, as aspirin did almost nothing to reduce pregnancy losses. There’s a catch, though; after careful analysis of the data, the researchers discovered that women who experienced only one recent miscarriage had a higher rate of pregnancy and carrying the child to term while they were taking the aspirin. Here is where the statistics are amazing: 78% of the aspirin group and while 66% of the placebo group conceived, and 62% of the women who took aspirin went on to have live births, while only 53% of the women who took the placebo.
Why is aspirin so good? Because it increases the blood flow to the uterus; more studies are needed to decide if aspirin helps improve fertility.
What are your thoughts on this? Are you taking aspirin? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.
