How Aspirin May Affect Pregnancy Chances

(RxWiki News) Women who have had previous miscarriages and want to get pregnant again may want to discuss taking more aspirin with their doctors.

That’s because a new study found that taking low-dose aspirin several times per week might result in higher chances of pregnancy and live births for women.

This study, led by Dr. Enrique Schisterman, of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, looked at data from a past study published in 2014. That past study compared pregnancy and live birth outcomes in women who took low-dose aspirin and those who took a placebo. It found the opposite of this new study — that low-dose aspirin was not tied to a higher chance of getting pregnant or having a live birth.

For the new study, researchers examined the same data from more than 1,000 women between the ages of 18 and 40 who had had one or two miscarriages. But this time, they didn’t simply compare women who took aspirin to those who took a placebo. Instead, they looked at women who stuck to a near-daily aspirin regimen and those who didn’t.

Women who took low-dose aspirin four or five days a week had higher chances of pregnancy and live birth. That’s compared to both women who took a placebo and those who did not stick to a near-daily aspirin regimen.

In this reanalysis, the study authors found that there were 15 more live births, six fewer pregnancy losses and eight more positive pregnancy tests for every 100 women who took aspirin five to seven days per week. They found similar results for women who took aspirin four days per week.

Women in this study who took aspirin took 81 milligrams per day. Those who conceived continued taking aspirin through the 36th week of pregnancy.

While aspirin is generally considered safe, it can pose serious health risks to some people. Talk to your health care provider before you start taking aspirin or any other over-the-counter drug.

This study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The NIH funded this research. The study authors disclosed no potential conflicts of interest.