Several studies have previously looked at whether use of low dose aspirin during in vitro fertilization cycles would result in a higher chance for implantation. Some of these studies have shown an improvement in implantation rates, some have not.

Implantation Failure Study

At a presentation at the 2007 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Meeting in Washington, D. C., researchers from the Netherlands presented results of a randomized double blind, placebo controlled study in which they sought to determine whether low dose aspirin would improve the chances for implantation in a group of couples who had previously failed to have implantation in one or more in vitro fertilization cycles.

To qualify for the study, the female partner must have been under age 39 and have a normal Day 3 FSH level. During the stimulation of the ovaries, each couple must have produced at least four eggs. Some of the patients who were excluded from this study included obese females (body mass index greater than 30) and smokers.

152 patients were divided into two groups. Group 1 was treated with low dose aspirin and group 2 was given an aspirin placebo. Neither the patients, nor the doctors knew which group received the “real” aspirin.

The ongoing pregnancy rate was 34.7% in the aspirin group and 29.9% in the placebo group. Both groups had a similar number of eggs retrieved, fertilization rate, number of embryos transferred into the uterus and number of leftover embryos that were frozen.

The study concluded that for the group of patients with previous implantation failure, use of low dose aspirin was of no detectable benefit.