• Defective Drug Side Effects

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A long-awaited 10-year study involving nearly 40,000 women provides the first strong evidence of the benefits of healthy women taking aspirin regularly. Researchers reported aspirin does not protect women against heart attacks in the same way it does for men, a practice that has already been adopted, mainly because of studies on men.

Aspirin was found to cut women’s chances of suffering a stroke, which is not a benefit among men. Unlike men, aspirin was not able to reduce the risk of first heart attacks for middle-aged women, but does lower the chances of having a heart attack for women age 65 and older when the stroke-reduction benefits also appear to be the greatest.

The study results have added more evidence showing the differences between men and women and that research on men does not necessarily translate to women. Experts do not know why the differences exist.

The federally funded Women’s Health Study shows that there is an absence of a clear and overall benefit for younger women taking aspirin but older women may be able to benefit. Millions of people take aspirin under the belief that it will prevent a future heart attack, but with the availability of the new data, women will be able to better weigh the risks against the benefits, which for many women could be exposing them to more harm than good.