U. study is testing aspirin and fertility

Low-dose aspirin may help women who have had trouble becoming pregnant or carrying a baby to term, according to researchers at the University of Utah.

Now they're enrolling women who have had one or two pregnancy losses for a study to see if low-dose aspirin does make a difference.

As many as one-third of pregnancies end up being lost, most of them early in the pregnancy, according to Dr. Robert M. Silver, lead investigator and chief of maternal-fetal medicine at the U. Of those, a subset likely results from decreased blood flow. In those cases, low doses of aspirin, which has blood-thinning properties, may make a big difference.

Tonia Anderson enrolled in the EAGeR study — Effects of Aspirin on Gestation and Reproduction — just weeks after her first pregnancy ended last May at 14 weeks, unexpected and without any known medical explanation. At the time, she felt incredibly alone, and although her family was supportive, she said, even those closest to her didn't realize how devastating it has been.

"It's on my mind every day," Anderson said. "I want to talk about it all the time, to everybody I see. I cannot imagine losing a child at any age. After that 3 1/2 months, I felt so connected to that baby."

Worse, no one could explain what happened. And she was left with platitudes that offered no comfort or answers, handed out by well-meaning people who had never gone through it and didn't understand, she said. Besides perhaps helping her have a successful pregnancy, the study has connected her with others who have suffered similar losses and have similar hopes for a future successful pregnancy.

The theory behind EAGeR is that low-dose aspirin may improve pregnancy outcomes by helping more blood reach reproductive organs and the placenta, as well as thickening the uterine wall. Aspirin may impact several aspects of reproduction, including getting pregnant, forestalling early loss, stillbirth, pre-eclampsia, unusually small size of fetus, placental insufficiency and premature birth, said Laurie Lesher, research coordinator.

Silver said often it's not known what caused a pregnancy loss, so it's hard to identify the subset of women who could benefit from aspirin therapy. Some women with very specific conditions that caused miscarriage are unlikely to benefit.