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Monday, January 25, 2021
What
Contrary to previous findings, treatment with low doses of aspirin before conception and during early pregnancy may increase pregnancy rates and live births in women who have experienced one or two previous miscarriages, a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health suggests. Rather than just looking at the difference in pregnancy rates between women who received aspirin and women who received a placebo, the study also explained differences in the overall aspirin use between women who deviated from the daily regimen and those who adhered to it.
The research team was led by Enrique Schisterman, Ph.D., of the Epidemiology Branch at NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and colleagues. It appears in it Annals of Internal Medicine.
The Effects of Aspirin in Pregnancy and Reproduction (EAGeR), published in 2014, involved more than 1,000 women between the ages of 18 and 40 with one or two previous miscarriages. The women were given a low dose of aspirin (81 milligrams) or a placebo daily while trying to conceive. If they got pregnant, they would continue to receive this regimen through the 36th week of pregnancy. While the study did not find an overall difference in the pregnancy loss rates between the two groups, there was a higher birth rate for the subgroup of women who had only one previous miscarriage before the twentieth week of pregnancy.
In contrast to the original analysis, the current reanalysis looked at whether a participant adhered to treatment or missed days or stopped completely due to adverse events such as bleeding, nausea, or vomiting. Compared to the placebo group, following the aspirin regimen for five to seven days a week on every 100 women resulted in eight positive pregnancy tests, six fewer pregnancy losses and culminated in 15 more live births. Women who followed the therapy four days a week had similar results. The researchers concluded that taking a low dose of aspirin at least four days a week could improve the chances of pregnancy and being born alive in this group of women.
Who
Lindsey Sjaarda, Ph.D., Staff Scientist in the NICHD Epidemiology Branch, is available for comment.
h3> Article
Naimi, AI, et al. The effect of preconception-initiated low-dose aspirin on human chorionic gonadotropin-detected pregnancy, pregnancy loss, and live birth: per protocol analysis of a randomized trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2021.
About the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): NICHD leads research and training to understand human development, improve reproductive health, improve the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize skills for all. For more information, visit https://www.nichd.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):
NIH, the national medical research agency, includes 27 institutes and centers and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the premier federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research, investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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