A miscarriage is disheartening, especially for women who experience it multiple times. But even women who have gone through one or more miscarriages still have chances of being pregnant. It's recently been found that to conceive again, and women might need to know the right dosage of aspirin for them.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Emory University have found that low-dosage of aspirin before conception and during early pregnancy could give women more chances of getting pregnant and delivering live births, including those who have had one or two prior miscarriages.
Low-Dose Aspirin Therapy May Increase Pregnancy Chances
Project leader and associate professor in epidemiology at Rollins School of Public Health in Emory University Ashley Naimi, PhD, and her colleagues in the Epidemiology Branch at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) adjusted for differences in aspirin use between two groups. Women were divided into those who deviated from the daily regimen and those who adhered to it.
The study published in Annals of Internal Medicine involved more than 1,000 women between the ages of 18 and 40 years old who had experienced one or two miscarriages. They were given either a daily dose of 81 milligrams worth aspirin or a placebo while trying to conceive. When the women managed to conceive, they continued to receive this regimen throughout their 36th week of pregnancy.
While the original study from back in 2014 found no overall difference in the two groups regarding pregnancy loss rates, researchers still found a higher birthrate for the subgroup of women who had only one prior miscarriage before the 20th week into the pregnancy.
Unlike the past analysis, the current one also considered whether the women adhered to the treatment, skipped days or discontinued the regimen possibly due to side effects, including vomiting, nausea or bleeding.
Here they found that for every 100 participants that adhered to the aspirin regimen for at least five days a week then had eight more positive pregnancy tests and six fewer pregnancy losses and were said to have culminated in 15 more live births. Researchers found similar results for women who followed the aspirin therapy four days a week.
The results showed that taking low-dose aspirin at least four days per week may improve their chances of getting pregnant and having live births in this group of women.
“This work is the first to demonstrate that starting low-dose aspirin therapy while trying to become pregnant and taking it consistently four or five days a week until birth, may improve the reproductive outcomes of couples who have experienced one or two prior pregnancy losses,” said Naimi.
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