Aspirin is commonly used a treatment for toothache, cold, dysmenorrhea and fever but new studies suggest that the drug is also beneficial to pregnant women as well as to those who are trying to conceive.
In a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine earlier this week, researchers found that taking low dosage aspirin daily after the third trimester of pregnancy can protect certain groups of women from preeclampsia, a condition that can endanger the health of both mother and unborn child.
In another study, researchers found another benefit of aspirin in women albeit this time, it is for those who have experienced pregnancy loss and are currently trying to conceive. In the study published in the Lancet Journal April 2, researchers assigned over 1,000 women to either take low dose aspirin or placebo daily for six months while they were trying to conceive.
The researchers found that the pregnancy loss rate did not differ between participants in both groups suggesting that aspirin does not prevent miscarriage. Nonetheless, women who received aspirin, and who only had one miscarriage, or still birth a year prior to the study had increased chances of getting pregnant and giving live birth.
Of the subjects who received aspirin, 58 percent gave birth while only 53 percent of those who received placebo did. In those who had single miscarriage before the 20th week of pregnancy a year prior to the study, 78 percent of the aspirin takers got pregnant compared to only 66 percent of those who took placebo. Sixty-two percent of those who received aspirin also gave birth compared to 53 percent of those who received placebo.
"Preconception-initiated low-dose aspirin was not significantly associated with live birth or pregnancy loss in women with one to two previous losses," the researchers reported. "However, higher livebirth rates were seen in women with a single documented loss at less than 20 weeks' gestation during the previous year. Low-dose aspirin is not recommended for the prevention of pregnancy loss,"
The researchers hypothesized that the fertility boosting properties of aspirin may be attributed to its ability to increase blood flow to uterus. Nonetheless, they pointed out that further research is still needed to determine if aspirin could also be helpful in boosting fertility in women that belong to other subgroups such as those whose embryo does not implant in their uterus.
