Aspirin prevents cardiovascular disease in both men and women - but in different ways, a US study suggests.
Duke University researchers found that aspirin can reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in healthy people.
However, aspirin lowered the risk of a heart attack in men, while in women the drug reduced the risk of a stroke.
"Aspirin is a drug that has been used for many years - it is well-understood, effective, inexpensive and widely available," said lead researcher Jeffrey Berger.
"This is good news because many of the past studies of the effect of aspirin in preventing cardiovascular events looked only at men, so physicians were reluctant to prescribe aspirin for women because there was little data.
Lead researcher Jeffrey Berger: "Aspirin is a drug that has been used for many years - it is well-understood, effective, inexpensive and widely available."
"But now, the combined data of recent trials involving women demonstrates that women can benefit just as much from aspirin therapy as men."
The researchers analysed results from six clinical trials of aspirin, involving more than 95,000 patients, of which 51,342 were women.
They found that aspirin conferred a 12 per cent reduction in risk in cardiovascular events for women, and a 14 per cent reduction for men.
Specifically, among the 51,342 women in the analysis, there were 625 strokes and 469 heart attacks. Among the 44,114 men, there were 597 strokes and 1,023 heart attacks.
However, the use of aspirin does not come without potential risks, especially in terms of major bleeding episodes. The analysis found that routine aspirin use for an average of 6.4 years would lead to 2.5 major bleeding events per 1,000 women and 3 major bleeding events per 1,000 men.
"For this reason, while we believe that many more people could benefit from taking aspirin, it is important for patients and their physicians to discuss the issue and weigh the benefits and potential drawbacks to this therapy," Berger added.
The study findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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