The study by doctors in Argentina is published in Fertility and Sterility - the journal of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. It compared two groups of 149 women. One group took a daily dose of 100mg of aspirin at the same time as IVF drugs to stimulate the ovaries, the other group just took the IVF drugs. On average, almost twice as many eggs were retrieved from the women who took aspirin than those who did not. But Peter Wardle, honorary secretary of the British Fertility Society, said the study was too small to be conclusive and other larger studies had suggested no big difference in fertility rates.
Opinion is fairly divided.
Small studies suggest there is a difference while larger studies suggest there isn't. If there were a consistent pattern, every IVF unit would use it. He added that some infertile women might benefit from low doses of aspirin. Research suggests that people with autoimmune diseases, those with a family history of blood clots or recurrent miscarriage might benefit from aspirin, he said. Women with a family history of recurrent miscarriage may have a mild form of a syndrome which causes early miscarriage.